The Secret to Peace and Joy

"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 4:6-7 NKJV

Restless sleep, stress eating, tension, weariness, existential crisis: These past two years, people everywhere, young or old, are experiencing these symptoms.. It’s called anxiety, the general and safe diagnosis for the troubled soul. Unlike the past, vacations and retreats aren’t enough to restore and sustain a sense of peace anymore. I believe anxiety is the covert pandemic – the unnamed and insidious rider on the coattails of modernization and the killer of our hearts. Anything that disturbs the heart affects our being. This is why Solomon said, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23 ESV) The problem of the heart is the heart of the problem.
 
As I reflect on the upcoming Thanksgiving season, I began to understand why an attitude of gratitude is God’s will in our prayers and petitions. Gratitude is the mother of all virtues and the heart is the fountain from which all issues of life spring. If the heart is pregnant with gratitude, one day, it will birth peace and joy. The children of gratitude go hand in hand as most siblings do. Peace is the guardian of the heart and joy, the sustainer.
 
It’s not really a secret. Having a grateful heart leads to peace and joy. Why did this truth elude my focus? Because I used to be holier than thou in terms of being thankful. Then these verses, like a mirror,  showed I have a very low TQ or “thankfulness quotient.” Consider my state of heart in these situations.
 
A few days ago, the funeral home called to inform us that Maxi, our bulldog who recently passed, was ready to come home. I felt offended knowing that they were referring to Maxi’s ashes, not the dog. Later that day, my husband handed the plaster mold with his paw print. I burst into tears. The offense turned into bitterness. I questioned God, “Why did you give Maxi if you’re taking him anyway?”
 
Then my mind flashed scenes of Maxi and me together. Every day with Maxi: playing, sunbathing, sleeping. Maxi dappled the past three years with silliness, wackiness, stubbornness, and affection. Those three years would have been colorless without him. The precious memories tilted my frowning lips into a smile until I breathed a prayer,

​Meditating on the verses in Philippians and looking at other Bible translations, I grasped how prayers with thanksgiving will shift one’s focus from worries to the person of Christ, the embodiment of peace. It’s not what we lost or didn’t have that makes us anxious. It’s those things we do have or have been given that we’re not thankful for. Jesus Himself nurtured a grateful heart. In the gospels, notice how our Lord, before He performed a miracle, mostly thanked the Father first in His prayers. Look up the feeding of the five thousand, the four thousand, and how Jesus called dead Lazarus to life. A thankful heart could well be the secret to miracles! Imagine how things would change in my life.
 
As a person who’s blind using a screen reader, I have a lot of system issues at work. My typical reaction? You guessed it. I complain, grumble, and even loathe work. Suppose I were thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to work from home for one of the top twenty Fortune 500 companies. In that case, I’d look forward to every workday. Instead, I work for the weekend, counting down days as they get closer to my time off. If my mother were alive, she’d remind me of the millions of people who didn’t have a job and those who had to toil under the sun for a minimum wage. And here I am, feeling entitled like a brat.
 
Whenever my alarm rings, I start whining about not having enough time to sleep. If I were thankful for another day that I’m alive, I’d spring on my feet and praise God for His mercies for a new day.
 
At mealtimes, I often crave “fresh lumpia” (eggrolls), “palabok” (a Filipino noodle dish), or “lechon kawali” (fried pork belly), instead of what is on the dining table. Take note, this happens even after we’ve prayed for the food. Often, saying grace before a meal is merely a habit instead of a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving. I’m like the Israelites complaining about mana in the desert. I would have been one of those killed for being ungrateful.
 
As Thanksgiving sets off the holiday season, let’s put Philippians 4:6-7 to the test. If we begin every petition by praising God for what we have, not only will we not be anxious, but we’ll also be blessed with the peace and joy God promises. Who knows, that negative comment you receive on social media won’t cause anxiety because you’re thankful for who you are, not comparing yourself to others. `
 
Let’s be thankful together and share our victories to increase our TQ (thankfulness quotient).

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