Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:4-9
Peace seems elusive to the people of Philippi. "...the peace of God...will guard your heart." and again, "the God of peace will be with you." Rather than deny that people are anxious, Paul tells them to go to the source of peace-God.
Why? Because God is not surprised. He is not caught off guard. He is not worried that things will not turn out as planned. Those were things that Paul experienced. Those were things that the Philippians experienced. They were not things that God experienced. But he welcomes us telling him about them, no matter how trivial or major they are.
There are two concrete tools for people under stress: first, stay gentle. Stress is a character projector-it shows what is really inside us. Second, center on that is true. Stress is often related to a world view where God is actually not in control or doesn't have care for us. In the back corners of our minds, we can construct all sorts of fantasy explanations of why things are the way they are and they often leave God out of it.
So first, this week, when I am stressed, I want to react gently and-when I don't-to be honest about that's going on. And second, I want to re-center and speculate on the possible good in the world rather than speculating on all the world's possible bad.
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