Who guards our hearts and minds?

Last night after a frustrating day I was getting ready to do my meditation/prayer time.  I have been reading through the Psalms over the past few months and was ready to delve into the next Psalm.  However, in my head I kept hearing the words of Philippians 4:4-7.  Now this verse has a special place in my heart as it was the verse “given”’ to me at my Confirmation by my Youth Pastor Anna Carter Florence.  It rang true for me then and it continues to ring true for me today.  

Usually verse 6 rings true for me and is the message I need to hear and take to heart.  This time reading aloud the verse (not from memory!) I was drawn to verse 7 “And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”  In particular I was drawn to the verb phrase will guard your hearts and minds.  My first question was what exactly are we being guarded against?  Then my next questions was what does the text mean by guarded?  I have come to realize that I am a word junky.  I love words and I love to know exactly what they mean in each particular context.  So I keep a dictionary in my meditation/prayer corner so I can look up words.

I looked up the word guard in the dictionary it means “to watch over” and the synonym is protect which means “to shield from injury.”  Many of us guard our hearts and minds out of fear.  We decide not to something because we are afraid we will fail or we will get hurt doing it.  We decide not to take a leap of faith into a new job, relationship, adventure etc. because we are afraid of the unknown.  We do not want to risk getting hurt emotionally, mentally, or physically to the point we no longer have hope.

This scripture passage says just the opposite-it is God’s peace that will guard our hearts and minds.  It is not our job to guard our hearts and minds.  Rather it is God that is doing the guarding.  God’s peace guards our hearts and minds from the deep despair and hopelessness of sin and evil.  This does not mean that we will not suffer or get hurt because sin has not been eradicated.  Rather, we are freed to live as our authentic and true selves knowing God’s peace and love has the final word over sin and despair!