Dealing with Discouragement.2

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There is a great passage in Philippians 4.  I can not tell you how many times I have quoted that verse to myself in my mind and prayed it back to the Lord.  Recovery is hard work … it is a war against strong forces and a large part of that battle is a mental one.  We become stressed for all kinds of reasons and stress often leads to anxiety and fear … all of which has a mental, emotional and physical effect on us.  Stress takes us down and keeps us down.

Here is the passage …
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 
There is so much good stuff in this entire passage (Philippians 4:4-8) that we are going to spend some time working through it to savor it’s message.  It is obvious that his first point is important enough for him to say it twice …  Rejoice in the Lord.
What has to happen in your thinking  for you to rejoice?  To rejoice you have to change your thinking from fearful and anxious thoughts to thoughts that are worth rejoicing over.  You have to stop thinking about the bad stuff and start thinking about the good stuff.  Stop thinking about sin and all the crap from the past and start thinking about your Father, your Savior and the Spirit and rejoice.
This word rejoice is a present active imperative … which means it is something we are commanded to do (imperative), it is present means that it is something that we are to do all the time and it is active … it is something we actually physically do.
Second note the object of our rejoicing … “in the Lord”.  We here in Ohio rejoice in our Buckeyes, in the coming fall changing of the leaves and great temperatures.  There are a million and one things you can rejoice in and even that act of rejoicing in anything is better than stressing out about everything.  However, it is clear who we should be rejoicing about … THE LORD.  The LORD is the Lord … He is ruler over all and sovereign over our lives.
How often???  ALWAYS … and just to make sure we get this message he says it again  Rejoice in the Lord always, AGAIN I WILL SAY IT REJOICE.
I hate being around negative people.  They drain you.  They are complaining about everything and while they are doing that it is like each complaint feels like a 5 pound weight has been thrown onto my spirit.
So, to help deal with discouragement, fear, anxiety and depression … Rejoice in the Lord Always … again I say rejoice.  You can do this in times of prayer and worshipping Him.  I tend to sing the old hymns but you might sing any song that touches your heart or listen to worship music. Sing praises to Him.  Find Psalms that declare the glory of God and read them.
Try Psalm 139 at the end of the day today.
Rejoice … In the Lord … Always … Again I say … Rejoice.
More on how to do that tomorrow.

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