The Sentry of Our Hearts

Barclay Rubincam The Sentry at Birmingham, Brandywine Museum of Art

Every decision has a result.

Sometimes those results have unintended consequences. And, all too often, those unintended consequences provoke anxiety. What have I just done? Or said?

Many people suffer with anxiety—acute anxiety—for much of their lives. And anxiety infects everything. Unlike anger, or joy, anxiety is seldom triggered by outward circumstances. It’s well-spring is typically deep inside our hearts, often planted there by emotional trauma, sustained by a false self-image.

Well-meaning advice doesn’t normally help.

In his pastoral letter to the church in Philippi, Paul provides us with more than well-meaning advice. He provides us with a way out.

“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.” (Philippians 4:6)

As part of our daily prayer, my wife and I recite this verse every morning. We are seeking the peace of God. All too often, anxiety threatens to steal our peace. The worries of this life begin to choke the peace out of our day. And, boy, do we need something, someone to protect our peace.

Thankfully, there is a sentry that can stand guard over our hearts and emotions, a sentry that puts our hearts under protective custody and keeps anxiety from damaging ourselves and others.

After all the years of reciting that verse, I never before saw the sentry on guard.

The word translated in Philippians 4:6 as ‘anxious’ is the Greek word merimnao, which does mean anxiety. But the same word can also mean ‘drawn in opposite directions; divided into parts.’ A. T. Robertson was a Biblical scholar who lived 100 years ago, but his words still live today. He wrote that merimnao means “to go to pieces because (we’re being) pulled apart in different directions.”

Sounds like anxiety to me.

In the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23), Jesus explains to his disciples, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

The worries of this life rip the life right out of the seed.

But Paul emphatically tells us “Don’t be anxious about anything.” How is that possible? Paul also gives us the answer. “. . . by payer and petition, with thanksgiving.”

Prayerful thanksgiving leads invariably to gratitude And gratitude, ultimately leads us to peace.

The word translated 'peace' in Philippians 4:6 is the Greek word eirene. Which, interestingly enough, is rendered by Strong’s Concordance as ‘to join together as a whole . . . wholeness . . . when all the essential parts are joined together.”

God can overcome the anxiety in us, the pulling apart in different directions, by bringing together all of the essential parts . . . by making us whole.

My NIV Study Bible comes with ‘Text Notes’ at the bottom of each page. The Text Note for Philippians 4:6 reads “Anxiety is self-centered, counter-productive worry. Anxiety and prayer are two great, opposing forces in Christian experience . . . thanksgiving is the antidote to worry. An inner tranquility based on peace with God, the opposite of anxiety.”

Peace. The opposite of anxiety. When I pray, when I lift my petitions, requests, laments to God, and cover those laments with thanksgiving, something miraculous happens. My anxiety flees. And peace reigns. When all the essential parts are joined together. Wholeness.

But, for how long can I maintain that peace, that wholeness, when the worries of this world are pulling me in a dozen different directions?

That is the promise. The word translated 'guard' in this passage is the Greek word phroureo. It means “to keep in a garrison, to guard, to be kept in custody . . . to be a watcher in advance.”

Prayer, petition and thanksgiving create for us a garrison of sentries, watchers in advance to mount a guard and keep us safe from anxiety - the worries of this world. Or, as the NIV Text Note puts it, “to keep them in protective custody that extends to the core of their beings, and to their deepest intentions.”

Every decision has a result. When we make a decision to pray, and not to worry, not to be anxious, an interesting result occurs within us. Our stressed-out hearts are placed into protective custody. And a garrison of sentries not only protects us from anxiety, but also creates a safe place where peace can rule and reign.

Something changes.

Oswald Chambers, in his oft-quoted daily devotional, My Utmost For His Highest, writes (August 28th) “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes me and I change things.”

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”