Anxiety - Part 2

“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. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:4-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬‬‬‬‬

• I need to really be better at doing what the above text tells me to do. I do not rejoice in the Lord always. If I am honest, my rejoicing level is largely based on how I feel, my energy level, my circumstances, my talents or achievements, my emotions, my relationships, etc. The obvious problem with me rejoicing based on these things is these things will not always be things that are “rejoice-worthy” and so I will not always rejoice. I need to rejoice in the Lord-always-independent of these other things.
• Thank God for prayer! Yesterday we talked about how encouraging others and being encouraged by others can greatly help us not be anxious and in this passage, we see that praying to God is another huge way we can not be anxious. This has been a life saver for me over the more than a quarter of a century I have been a Christian.
• I need to be better at making myself think about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praise worthy. I tend to seek out things to worry about when my mind has free time so I need to remember this passage and force myself to think about the former instead of the latter.