Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(v6-7, NIV)

We are to not worry about anything. Instead of worrying, we are to present our requests to God with thanksgiving. What is the result of Paul's instruction? Well, God's peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Situations which cause us to worry are often hectic and filled with uncertainty. We may argue with ourselves over the possible outcomes and blame different things for the result. For example, I may be anxious about a job interview. I don't know how it will go or if I'll get the job or not. I may worry or be anxious about how the interview goes and about whether I'll get the job or not. Maybe even after the interview I'll be worried about how it went and worry about how I looked or some of the things I said. I may complain to myself, questioning why I said certain things or blaming the interviewer for their smell. Instead of worrying and being so focused on this situation, I should lift up my requests and concerns of my interview to God. This anxiety isn't productive and it's not helping. Instead of our hearts and minds being flustered, lifting our requests to God brings peace and calms us down. In a sense, we're bringing it to God to let him deal with it. When we worry and get all worked up over a situation, we're trying to do it ourselves and not letting God help us. He wants to help us. Paul says that God's peace will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. When we truly lift our burdens to God and leave it in his hands, we can be at peace with the situation. We are not at peace because of what we do, even though the thing we need to do is lift it to God, but we are at peace because of the peace God graces us with.

I won't try to explain God's peace to you. As Paul says, this peace transcends all understanding. You won't necessarily know or understand how this peace works. This is God's peace, and it is beyond our comprehension. Trust in God and leave it up to him. Even though we don't understand this peace he brings, we can still submit to it and allow God to work in our lives.