In case you haven’t been following for the last few weeks, Philippians 4:6-7 says, “⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We’ve been looking at how to actually apply this passage. So far, we have looked at our part in the equation. Now I would like to talk briefly about God’s part.

What is peace that “transcends all understanding?”  The Greek word for understanding here is nous. It means, “the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining.” The Greek word here for peace is eirene and it means, “A state of national tranquillity.”  (https://www.blueletterbible.org/)

So, we are talking about a tranquility that isn’t conditioned on our perception of the situation around us. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? No matter how crazy the situation is. No matter how turbulent your week has been or how psychotic your kids may be acting, God is able to give you a sense of tranquility in the midst of that. There is no magic formula to receive this peace from God.

The only thing I can recommend for all of us is that we take him at his word. This passage tells us to take him all our requests and petitions. It recommends that we knock on the gates of heaven repeatedly throughout the course of everyday life. That’s our part, and God’s grace will support us as we do that. We then must patiently wait on God to do in our hearts what only he can do.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” So this means that God wants us to find him. Our role is to seek him with every fiber of our being. The question isn’t whether or not it’s possible to find God. The real question is…how bad do we want to find him?