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4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:4-7
In our text, the Apostle commands us to "Rejoice in the Lord always." To rejoice in the Lord begins with understanding His sovereignty to some degree. When we learn to rejoice in the Lord, we have learned to direct our minds to the awesome truth that Jesus Christ is actively bringing everything under His power and goodness. It is then, at this point, that we are positioned to respond to whatever happens to us and to whatever the Lord desires of us. It is at this point that we can honestly live by Paul's statement in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ."
With this command in view, the potential joy stealers fade into view. The joy stealer in Philippians 4 is our problems which causes us anxiety. In all of the Word of God, God is revealed as jockeying with constant exhortations for us to stop worrying. Corrie Ten Boom once said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
When we consider what it looks like when we trade worry and anxiety for joy, we will trust the Lord more and we will treat each other better. We trade our anxiety for joy through prayer. Once we are in the habit of practicing His presence, we will be positioned to receive from Him all that we need to trust Him more and love one another as we ought.
On the other hand, the fuel to our anxiety is fear. Fear is like that big bully who would be waiting for me everyday on my way to middle school. Everyday this bully would demand of me money, half of what I had for lunch. The fear that I experienced, everyday, zapped me of any joy that I had when my day began.
Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness. It creates a form of spiritual forgetfulness. It wipes out our memory for miracles. It makes us forget what the Lord Jesus has done and how good He is. And, God's most common command emerges from the “fear not” genre.
In v.6, the Apostle Paul gives us a way to deal with our fear: He writes, "in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." We do not have to be afraid or anxious. We can turn it over to God. And, He will turn it on its head, using it to bolster our heart's ability to see Him.
God's salve for healing us from our anxieties is prayer which is the expression of our dependence upon His promises. This quiet conversation with God is most often fueled by our trust in Him. Prayer is the continual recognition that we need to lean on Him and His grace and strength. Prayer is experiencing Him in everything, constantly relating to His indwelling life. When we turn it over to God, we have access to His peace which is not manufactured by us. His peace invites His joy over for dinner and it stays for breakfast.
In v.5, we read, "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." A literal translation is: "not insisting on every right of letter of law or custom; yielding, gentle, kind, courteous, tolerant." When we follow God's path: anxiety leads to prayer which leads to peace which leads to joy. This is what happens as we relate to Him and it spills over to how we trust Him and treat others. We will become more gentle, kind, and tolerant.
The phrase "the Lord is near" refers to two things simultaneously. The first, the Lord Jesus is with us. He has not left us alone to figure everything out. He is with us. His Spirit indwells us who believe. And, He will lead us when we follow.
The second, we are reminded and made more and more aware of the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming back. His return is imminent. It could happen any day. Learning to live in His presence is the key here. As we practice His presence, He becomes a good habit. His presence is as sure as the rising of the sun, that is until He returns for us.
This means we do not have to insist on anything because, we have turned it over to Him, relying on and being defined by Him. Anxiety and fear is then dealt a death blow. The Lord Jesus is here with us, and He is coming back soon. We do not have to fix everything. And, the result is experiencing His life come to bear in the here and now.
In v.6, the Apostle directs us to "not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." When we give thanks in everything, even in the midst of difficult circumstances, we are seeking to draw water from a well that is not of us. Yet, if faith in Christ resides within us, this well resides within us. No matter how bad things get, we can always find something for which to be thankful. Once we find one thing, we will find another and then another. If we start giving thanks, whether we feel thankful or not, we will find and experience the well.
Whenever we encounter the problems of life, we must habitually lean back into Him in prayer. We are wise to lean into the One who is able and competent to calm anything within us through His indwelling life.
Thanksgiving is that forward look of faith that gives safe haven to gratitude for Him in advance for the good developments that are yet to be realized. A growing familiarity with His presence assures us that something good will result and that even the cause of our fears and anxieties are parts of His recipe that yields His purpose.
God is not saying we should ask for everything we want. We are to pray for His will. Frequently we pray for things He never promises. Often we ask, "Lord, take this trouble out of my life." But God may have allowed this trouble to enable us to see Him more clearly and to know Him more deeply. Wisdom says, "Embrace Him through the trouble."
As a result, prayer and gratitude escorts His peace into our existence. And, when His peace grips us in the midst of the most distressing circumstances, we will experience Him directly as He undergirds, sustains and strengthens us.
The peace of God keeps us, guards our hearts from breaking free into thinking that stomps all over our inner lives. Our hearts and minds are thus fortified against anxiety and inaccurate and potentially destructive ways of understanding reality.
Finally, when I realized that if I put my lunch money in my shoe when I was in Middle School, the thief subsequently left me alone. I am discovering that it is much the same with fear, worry and anxiety. When I trust God with my day, He rushes in with His strengthening presence for which I am very, very grateful.
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