Welcome to Part 3 of the God Meets You in Your Anxiety series. Be sure to catch Part 1 and Part 3.
Did you know that the command to rejoice is one of the most repeated commands in the Bible? But, what about when we are going through difficulty or a crisis? Do you ever wonder how to rejoice when anxious?
As our nation and the world go through uncertain times, we are all feeling new kinds of anxiety and discomfort. Nothing is quite the same, even though lots of things continue on – an abnormal normalcy.
Shortly before COVID19 shut down much of the county, I shared three promises of God for the different types of anxiety, in Part 1 of the God Meets You in Your Anxiety Series.
Perhaps you’ve felt yourself start feeling the various kinds of anxiety. I know I personally have in different moments experienced each:
- General anxiety – when I just sense something is off, and the world has changed.
- Physical anxiety – when I first put on my cloth mask to go grocery shopping during the COVID19 pandemic. My mind logically evaluated the danger (slight) – but seeing myself in a mask for the first time caused my body’s fight/flight to start ramping up.
- Specific anxiety – when I think about the possibilities of us getting sick or consider how eggs, yeast, pasta, paper towels, etc are not available in the grocery store.
Yet, I keep reminding myself: as the world and the calendar for this year have completely changed, God and His word have not.
The Apostle Paul wrote about our God who has walked with His people through famine, plague, trauma, and death. Paul’s words to the church in Philippi about how to rejoice when anxious applies just as powerfully to us today.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious 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, ESV)
If we are to walk through our anxiety during this, or any, crisis we must cling to Jesus, trusting He knows how to get us through.
We cling to Jesus by choosing to rejoice when anxious.
Paul’s first instruction in Philippians 4:4 is:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. “ (v. 4a)
When you are in crisis or anxious, does this command sometimes feel discouraging or judgemental?
Perhaps you identify with my friend.
She looks at me from her place on the couch, indignation and contempt coloring her voice, “What?! Am I just supposed to be happy about the bad things that are happening to me? How can I rejoice in these circumstances?”
I’m sure you’d agree, the last thing we want to hear when we’re suffering or anxious is “Rejoice, be happy!”
I surely don’t!!
Last night at my Community Group a friend with a very bubbly personality said, “Let’s go around and EVERYONE tell something they’re thankful for!!!”
Internally I groaned, “This is not what I feel like doing today. Don’t you know how long and hard my day has been? I’m tired. I don’t have the energy to rejoice.”
Yet, her suggestion was good and valid. Rejoicing isn’t an action related to our feelings, but rather a choice of our will.
There are times our feelings naturally instruct our will to rejoice, but there are other times, we choose rejoicing with tears flowing down our faces.
Remember, the command to rejoice does not discount your pain.
Oh dear one, Paul is not suggesting that we just summon up feelings of “happiness.” He is not commanding us to cease feeling our pain and anxiety.
We should feel sorrow, anger, and pain when sin taints or destroys the good in life.
Jesus was angered by the rebellion of Israel. He mourned with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus. Grief tinged His longing to comfort Jerusalem. (Matthew 11:20-24; 23:37; John 11:28-36)
God does not call you to leave your anxiety by the brute force of your will, or by disassociation and denial.
Instead, God calls us to add rejoicing to the mixture of emotions we are already feeling:
“Mixed emotions are the right response to the mixed world. Life in this world means the delightful glories of God’s handiwork always get the muck of sin and suffering spattered on them. We have no godly choice but to both mourn and rejoice.”
{Groves & Smith, see NOTE 1}
Being in a place where you can feel multiple conflicting emotions at the same time is not a sign of mental break down, but emotional maturity. {Allender, see NOTE 2}
When Paul commanded the Philippian church to rejoice when anxious, he was in prison awaiting trial. He intimately knew both suffering and the refreshment of the Lord. God’s grace had changed how he saw difficult circumstances.
Paul longed for the Philippian church, and YOU, to know the preciousness of walking with Jesus through trials.
His tone here is not one of condemnation or making light of your circumstances. {see NOTE 3} His command to rejoice when anxious isn’t a call to cease grieving, it is a call to worship.
Paul says to us, “Look, dear one, at Jesus’ beauty! I don’t want you to miss this! Cry out in wonder at His glory!”
God meets us in our anxiety when we look up above our concerns to gaze at our Savior.
You can learn to rejoice when anxious.
When your brain and body are anxious, you will find it difficult to access the logical part of your brain. This logical center of the brain is what helps you to think of things about which you can rejoice.
This is why we often react with negative emotions if we are told to rejoice when anxious. Our brains physiologically struggle to go there. The anxious brain is in self-preservation mode: conserving power and energy, looking for problems, and almost unable to find positive, joyful things.
Yet, Paul’s command remains. He doesn’t give us an out because it is hard!
We must make rejoicing a lifestyle, not a last resort.
Just like other skills, when we practice rejoicing, our brains find it easier to do when under duress. A lifestyle of rejoicing {see NOTE 4} primes your neural pathways to go down the rejoicing path, rather than the worry path, when overwhelmed by anxiety. We can rejoice WHEN anxious – during the struggle, not just after.
But, what about when we haven’t practiced rejoicing, or our worry has so flooded our minds that we can’t find anything about which to rejoice?
First, look to God!
Allow the Spirit to work on your brain and body as you choose to focus on the wonders of God through His word.
Remember, we rejoice ultimately in God. Our gratitude is about Him, not our circumstances.
Second, go to scripture.
Here are a few go-to passages that give ample fuel for rejoicing:
- Exodus 34:6-7a, “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.” (ESV)
- Romans 8:31-39, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ESV)
- Ephesians 3:14-19, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (ESV)
- Philippians 2:5-11, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
I wrote Exodus 34:6-7a on a 3×5 card and taped it to my kitchen cabinet, because that is where I most often find myself needing to practice rejoicing.
When you find yourself struggling to rejoice, choose one of these (or your favorite passage). If you can take a moment, write out that passage. If you can’t write it out, speak it aloud.
Download the free Scripture Breathing Exercises for more scriptures to fuel your rejoicing!
Third, spend 20 seconds focused on your topic of joy.
Really notice what your verse says.
Take at least 19 seconds to allow those truths to saturate your mind. It can take that long for our brains and bodies to register something good.
Negative things are filed in our brains immediately, but we have to choose to dwell on the good.
Finally, repeat!
Remember, our goal is to make a lifestyle of rejoicing. We cooperate with the Spirit of God by working to bring our bodies and hearts into submission to God’s word by practice.
Seek out a way to start an intentional practice of rejoicing every day.
I use my Rejoice Always: 100 Day Gratitude Journal. Each day, when my kids begin quiet time, I make myself a cup of tea and get out my printed copy of Rejoice Always. This gives me a set, practiced time to focus on rejoicing.
We, of course, don’t want to leave out rejoicing at just one set time a day, but having an intentional practice can fuel your heart for more spontaneous rejoicing throughout the rest of your day.
Get your copy of
Rejoice Always
as a PDF printable
or book (from Amazon.com).
As you walk through anxiety, be gentle.
The attitude Paul commands for us in our anxiety is not glib ignorance of possible problems or forced “happiness.”
Instead, we walk forward into the world with “a humble, patient steadfastness, which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace, and maltreatment without hatred or malice, trusting God” in spite of all our suffering. {5}
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5, NIV)
Trust in God’s nearness opposes to anxiety.
We can’t teeter-totter back and forth from anxiousness to happiness.
Walk forward step-by-step, humbly accepting the circumstances God gives you. Focus on His majesty, trusting your soul and our future to Him, because He is good.
So, what does this look like as you battle your own anxiety?
Dear one, be gentle with yourself.
This can look like:
- Refusing to berate yourself because of the worries in your life. These are common to man.
- Laying your concerns at the feet of your Father in heaven (Philippians 4:6).
- Breathing intentionally. (Use the Scripture Breathing Exercises for help.)
- Letting yourself rest – patiently endure while you wait for the resolution to your problems.
- And yes, rejoicing when anxious.
Dear one, you do not wait alone.
For years I’ve interpreted Philippians 4:5b, “The Lord is at hand (ESV),” as a warning: “Jessica, you better start rejoicing! You better be gentle! You BETTER stop being anxious – because God is watching you!! He’s gonna see the moment you mess up!”
Oh dear one, if you have read this verse in a similar way, breathe.
God is not standing next to you ready to slap your hand for your worries. This is a verse of comfort, not judgment.
Jesus is near. He walks with you. He will never leave or forsake you.
Rather, as you read Philippians 4:4 hear: “Dear one, Look at how beautiful Jesus is! Look! You don’t want to miss this! Take that vision of glory into your daily life so that you can humbly endure trial while trusting God. Jesus is with you! Right now! And He’s coming again. Have hope in His presence.” {see NOTE 6}
Our ability to rejoice when anxious comes from the One who walks with us. We can ONLY do battle with anxiety if we look at Jesus. Our reason for rejoicing comes from Him and our hope for the future rests in His hands.
NOTES:
{1} ( Groves & Winston T. Smith, Untangling Emotions, p. 45
{2} Dan B. Allender, The Wounded Heart. NavPress (1990), p.133
{3} “It is worth remembering that when Paul issued this call to rejoice he was in prison awaiting the outcome of his trial. . . . It is not as though the apostle is here inviting his readers ‘to see a silver lining in the ominous clouds of opposition and hazard that are approaching’. . . . further, this joy is not because ‘the future stands open’. Rather, the key to this rejoicing is its being [in the Lord], … which signifies that the Lord is either the object of their rejoicing or the ground and the one in whom their joy thrives (see on 3:1).” (Peter T. O’Brien, NIGTC: The Epistle to the Philippians, p. 486)
{4} The Greek verb in Philippians 4:4 for “rejoice” isn’t describing a one-time event. The very form of the verb indicates that Paul expects rejoicing to be an ongoing process and repeated action (Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pp. 485 & 722)
{5} Peter T. O’Brien, NIGTC: The Epistle to the Philippians, p. 488-489
{6} There is a two-fold sense to the Lord’s nearness. He is nearby walking with them, and also returning soon eschatologically. Both parts bring empowerment and hope to His people. Peter T. O’Brien, NIGTC: The Epistle to the Philippians, pp. 488-490)
