Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7

There’s a great truth in these words. The peace of God comes when as we learn to give thanks and to rejoice in all circumstances. We want things to be a certain way. We want to have security; we want to have certainty; we want ourselves and our loved ones to have good health and fortune. But often life isn’t like that. That’s when rejoicing in God and giving thanks is a vital contribution to our mental and emotional peace.

Much suffering is caused by our desire to have things be a certain way, different from how they are now. We long for this and we look back with nostalgia to the ‘good old days’. Peace comes in living in the present moment. In the present moment all is well. All is as it is. Let us give thanks and rejoice in the present moment, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.