Finding Joy When You’re Stressed Out

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. – Philippians 4:4-5

The question I want us to consider over the next couple of days is this: How can you bear the fruit of joy that you have to handle, with all the problems that you have to solve, with all the people that you have to deal with?

A man who is in prison, under the threat of death every day, not knowing whether he would live or die from one day to the next, wrote the perfect prescription for how to get stress out when you are stressed out.  

Paul gives us four steps to follow if we want to experience stress relief, and I can guarantee that your life will be richer, better, and sweeter if you practice these steps on a daily basis. We’re going to look at the first two steps today, and then we’ll look at the last two tomorrow.

The first step you should take if you want to be relieved of your stress is to rejoice in the person of the Lord. You can’t always rejoice in your circumstances. You aren’t going to find a lot of joy in big pressures, tough problems, and difficult people, but you can always rejoice in the Lord.

You can always rejoice in the greatness of the Lord. You can always rejoice in the grace of the Lord. You can always rejoice in the goodness of the Lord. And you can choose to be joyful. Do you know why? Because happiness is determined by what happens to you. If what happens is bad you aren’t going to be happy. If what happens is good you may be happy. But no matter what happens, you can always choose to be joyful, and that comes from rejoicing in the person of the Lord.

The second step you can take to experience stress relief is to relax in the presence of the Lord. The evidence you can give to other people that you trust God is how you handle the stressful times in your life. You want your family members, your friends, your coworkers, and your neighbors to see how a real Christian handles real problems. We don’t freak out or run out; we remain contagiously calm and trustful that we have the presence of God right beside us.

Instead of focusing on the problem and the pressure and the people and forgetting about God, we focus on God and let him handle the problems, and the pressure and the people. The gentleness will be evident to everybody. So if you’re stressed out today, I pray that you will be intentional about relaxing in the presence of the Lord and experience joy and peace as a result.

Dear Lord, thank you that even when my circumstances feel out of control, you are always in control. Thank you that I can trust you to provide joy and peace even when I’m stressed out by what’s going on around me. Help me to rejoice in who you are and relax in your presence today and in the days to come. In Jesus’ name, amen.