The Peace That Stands Guard Like a Sentinel

There's a peace you can't explain. It comes after prayer, without anything about the problem having changed on the outside — and yet you breathe differently. The Bible calls this "the peace which passeth all understanding." It doesn't make logical sense: the bills are still there, the situation is still there, but inside you there's a calm that shouldn't fit. Notice the verb: this peace guards your heart. In the original language, the word is military — a sentinel standing watch, a soldier posted around the wall. When you hand your affliction over to God in prayer, he posts his peace as a guard at the door of your heart and mind, so fear can't invade again. You don't need to understand this peace to receive it — in fact, it "passeth understanding" precisely because it comes from beyond your ability to reason out the solution. Today, after you pray, don't go looking for an explanation for the calm that comes. Just receive it. Let God's sentinel take the post that anxiety used to occupy.