Wellspring Women’s Ministry Blog and Online Community

Those of you who know me know how much I love words. I collect words, especially Greek and Hebrew words from the Bible, the way some women collect fabric or buttons or teapots! I love to get out my Word Study Dictionary and look up all the words in a passage of scripture to make sure I understand the whole meaning God intended. 

Because I love words, I have decided to share what I think of as “Nugget Words” with you. Some words in the Bible are especially rich so that finding them and discovering the fullness of their definition is like finding a gold nugget. Your understanding of the passages where they are used is tremendously enhanced by learning about them. I won’t try to catch you up on all the words I have been discovering over the last 30+ years, but I will share the new ones I find from time to time. I am creating a new category on the blog for these words, called “Word Nuggets”.

Last week I was reading a passage that is one of my favorites in the New Testament, Philippians 4:6-7. Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. I memorized this passage early in my Christian walk and have relied on it often to remind myself not to give in to worry and anxiety. My mind seems to gravitate toward worry sometimes. I will be thinking about a situation of concern to me. I may even start out committing the problem to the Lord. But before I know it my mind has turned the prayer into a worry session. 

This time, as I was repeating the verse to myself from memory, I decided to look it up and read it directly from my Bible, just to make sure I was quoting it right. I happened to pick up my New American Standard Bible where the verse reads slightly different from the way I had memorized it. I had memorized the peace of God as “which passes understanding” but my NAS reads as I have quoted above, “which surpasses all comprehension.” So I got out my Word Study Dictionary and looked it up. 

The Greek word translated “comprehension” is nous, which means “the mind, the organ of mental perception and apprehension, the organ of conscious life.” What Paul is saying here is that the peace that God gives me when I pray and commit my concerns to Him is greater than my mind, my thinking. The peace of God, is bigger and carries me further than my thinking can even conceive of, and it even overcomes my thoughts.

The Greek word that is translated “minds” later in the same verse is noema. It means “a thought or concept of the mind; the understanding, the mind itself.” In this part of the verse Paul is saying that the peace of God guards our minds (our thoughts and understanding) so that we don’t lose our focus on Jesus. WOW!

As I have been meditating on this passage since reading these definitions, I am seeing that God here COMMANDS me to “be anxious for nothing.” Then He gives me the antidote to anxiety: He tells me that I can, instead of being anxious, pray about everything and ASK GOD FOR HELP (make supplication to Him). I can do this with THANKSGIVING, knowing that God has promised to hear my prayer and answer me. In turn, God will give me His peace. And His peace is GREATER THAN MY THINKING. God’s peace can even OVERCOME my anxious thoughts! God’s peace will protect my thoughts from straying away from the truth and safety that is in Jesus alone. The peace of God will keep me focused on Jesus instead of on the anxiety that strives to overpower in my mind.

Did you know the peace of God is more powerful than your mind? I am purposing to spend more time praying and making supplications, giving thanks and resting in His peace, and MUCH less time worrying! How about you?