Other Articles in this Series:
A Good Kind of Anxiety
How Can We Enjoy the Peace of God?
Anxiety.
We’ve all experienced it. Some of us struggle with anxiety more than others, but all of us can attest that anxiety is spiritually wearisome. Anxiety saps our energy and tempts us to become angry, easily annoyed, frustrated, even depressed. It can keep us from fulfilling our responsibilities and ministering to others. We need help.
Is Scripture sufficient to help Christians overcome anxiety? Not everyone believes it is. I am persuaded that this reluctance to recognize Scripture’s sufficiency to help Christians overcome anxiety—even serious, “clinical” forms of anxiety—is due to a superficial handling of God’s Word on this issue.
Is Scripture Sufficient to Overcome Anxiety?
Some Christians mistakenly conclude that all that the Bible can really do is get a person saved and then, from that point on, help them in their “devotional” and “church” life (however one defines “devotional” and “church” life). When it comes to issues like anxiety, especially anxiety that debilitates a person and keeps them from their regular, day-to-day routines (e.g., work, school, relationships, church, etc.), it is best to seek professional help in the form of psychotherapy and psychiatry.
Thinking that Scripture only offers prayer as a solution for anxiety, some (if not many) believers move on to more substantive solutions once they conclude that prayer is not working. Rather than plundering the Scriptures to learn all that the Bible says on the topic, many Christians quickly turn to other methods of healing once they conclude that prayer is, in their judgment, having little to no effect.
While the Bible does tell us to pray about our anxiety, it also says much more about how to handle this difficult emotion. As we will see in later messages, even the answer of “pray about it,” is too simplistic. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6 that there is a specific way to pray when it comes to fending off anxiety.
But he also tells us that we must do other things than pray in order to overcome our anxiety. Many of us, however, approach the Christian life passively, hoping that we can just ask God for something—like his supernatural peace and a relief of our anxiety—and he will give it right away. Philippians 4:4-9 confronts this wrong thinking, and instead gives us five essential practices we must pursue in order to experience God’s supernatural peace. In this article, I will consider Paul’s command to rejoice in the Lord (Phil 4:4).
Rejoice in the Lord Always
The first practice Paul would have us implement in our lives in our pursuit of this supernatural peace of God is active rejoicing in the Lord. I find it interesting that he doesn’t say, “Have joy in the Lord.” Rather, the apostle calls for our active participation and the engagement of our minds, hearts, and wills. Again, we are not to be passive in our aim to overcome anxiety.
You can see how rejoicing in Christ can do much to allay our anxiety and prepare us for God’s supernatural peace. When our hearts are fixed upon the glories of Christ and what he has accomplished for us, anxiety is soon pushed out of our hearts. A heart that is rejoicing always in the Lord is not a heart that will be easily overwhelmed by anxiety.
But how can we constantly and consistently rejoice in the Lord? Here’s how: by remembering that our righteous standing before God is by faith in Christ alone and not through keeping the law. When this truth is clear in our minds and hearts, we will see Christ as precious and valuable—so valuable that we are willing to give up everything for him. Just before Paul wrote Philippians 4, he penned Philippians 3 in which he declares how much he values the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the source of Paul’s joy.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:7-11).
Anxiety is the fear that something unpleasant or harmful will befall us in the near or distant future. The Christian, however, will never lose the source of his greatest joy, for Christ will always be his. This truth enables us to rejoice always. No matter what happens, we always have Christ.
We can also look forward to the resurrection, as Paul does in verses 10-11. Although we may be confronted with severe trials in this life, nothing is more severe than death. The good news is that our Savior has already overcome death, and we look forward to a physical resurrection and full deliverance from our final enemy (see 1 Cor 15:54-55).
“Can I Lose My Salvation?”
Someone might say, “Yes, but what if I lose my salvation?” This is an important question, for if we think we can lose our salvation, we will have trouble rejoicing always in the Lord. Indeed, the thought that I could lose my salvation would be a source of great anxiety! But Paul continues in verse 12:
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own (Phil 3:12).
Paul’s motivation for pressing on in holiness and obedience was the truth that Christ had made him his own. It was Christ who took the initiative in Paul’s salvation, dying for him, rising again from the dead, and then reaching down from heaven to rescue Paul from his self-righteous blindness (Acts 9:1-19). Paul didn’t make Christ his own. No, Paul was in a full-scale rebellion against God while convinced he was doing what was right. It was Christ and Christ alone who did all for Paul’s salvation and then took hold of him one day while he was on the road to Damascus. It was, from beginning to end, God and God alone who did everything for Paul’s salvation. The apostle knew, therefore, that Christ would not let him go (see also John 10:27-30; Rom 8:32-39)
It was precisely because Paul was convinced that he was not the initiator or preserver of his salvation that he could so consistently rejoice in the Lord, even in the midst of great trial and trouble (2 Cor 6:4-10). It was on this basis that he exhorted the Philippian Christians to rejoice always in the Lord.
Conclusion
Active rejoicing in the Lord is an essential practice if we are going to enjoy the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. We may want an easier path—passive prayer followed by a short period of waiting. But this is not how God has designed the Christian life. Yes, we are saved and sustained entirely by grace, and God’s gift of peace is nothing less than pure grace. Nevertheless, God has ordained that he bestow his gift of peace through means, one of which is active rejoicing in the Lord.
In the next article in this series, we will learn that pursuing public gentleness is an essential discipline we must cultivate so we might more consistently enjoy God’s peace.
