Peace or anxiety, polar opposites, comprise the choice every Christian makes. Neither is a given, determined by the consequences of birth or of circumstances. God cannot command that which is intrinsically impossible for us to do, so it must be within our ability to resist anxiety. So in a universal appeal, the inspired writer simply instructs, “Be anxious for nothing”—no matter the events that happen to you, however difficult they may seem. Cancer, loss of a loved one, uncertainty about the future, threats, dangers of any sort—the choice for either anxiety or peace remains yours to make.

Now this is not the psycho-mumbo-jumbo of positive thinking as though you have it within yourself to will into a state of peacefulness. This has no ultimate effect because it is not grounded in anything other than yourself. It’s like throwing the anchor overboard, only to have it land on the lower deck—not much help! Rather, the antidote to anxiety is prayer.

What a wonderful promise is laid out. The God of peace will give us the peace of God—and that peace exceeds our rational comprehension. In some ways, God’s peace makes no sense. How can we face the ultimate tragedies of life (to put the matter to the extreme) or any lesser stress, with an inner peace that really does guard us from irrational thoughts and actions or emotions out of control?

The key, though, is confident prayer in the God of peace. It is the kind of prayer where we bring our pleas for help to God with a sense of thankful anticipation of supernatural working in our inner person. This is confidence not only in God’s ability to bring us peace, but also in God’s willingness to do so.

The point here is not the occasional experience where we cast ourselves upon God in the face of some particularly difficult circumstance. Rather it is a lifestyle of dependence upon Him in everything, it is a way of life trusting Him even in the smaller stressors of life. What an antidote to the stress and anxieties of life! For some, this is a completely foreign way of living. For others it is the Christian norm. Some completely disintegrate in the face of life’s difficulties. Others, through trusting the Lord, walk vigorously and confidently with the peace of God, even in the most trying times of life.