Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 51. When Anxiety is Great Within Me (your consolation brings me joy)

Hello human.

Anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, pain, grief or any number of defeating mindsets are not new. They have been part of human nature since humans first started eating apples in the garden of Eden.

One place to turn for a hurting world is the Psalms.

Psalm 94 opens with a request for God to avenge the proud, the wicked, an appeal to render a payback for the afflictions created by the evildoers. He asks the Lord… “how long will the wicked be jubilant?” But midstream the Psalmist turns to the intimacy of his relationship with God:

Psalm 94: 18-19

¹⁸ When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
    your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
¹⁹ When anxiety was great within me,
    your consolation brought me joy.

KJV says it this way:

In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

I wanted to share how God takes me through my multitude of thoughts, by taking you through the power of His Word to console, as He did the Psalmist.

This scripture marks the tension and the traction between anxiety and joy. The KJV phrase “multitude of thoughts” captures so well what anxiety is for me… a restless mind with conflicting perspectives that argue with the future as if the present is not enough, that make it hard to accept reality, the here and now. Hard to rest in that which is good, that which is joyful right now.

Spiritual Therapy for a Multitude of Thoughts

The premise for my witness today is that when we find ourselves in the place of fear, anxiety, worry, depression, weakness, sadness, grief, despair, that we can always find joy, because our Savior experienced the deepest joy through the deepest suffering.

I left Pollyanna thinking a long time ago. I have also moved past the distinction that joy is enduring and from God and happiness is based on circumstances.  That is true, very true. But this is grown-up talk about making the journey to joy consistently.

And there is a simple daily path to get there through the Word. The Word of God, the father. And the Word of His only Son.

Consider the path of the Psalmist in Psalm 66, before Jesus walked on the earth:

Psalm 16

A miktam[a] of David.

1 Keep me safe, my God,

    for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

    apart from you I have no good thing.”

3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,

    “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.

    I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods

    or take up their names on my lips.

5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;

    you make my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

    surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;

    even at night my heart instructs me.

8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.

    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

    my body also will rest secure,

10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

11 You make known to me the path of life;

    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

From Anxiety + Other Negative Mindsets to Joy

So, from this Psalm we receive insights on how to arrive back at a joyful heart.

1. Ask for God’s safe haven, claim He is your refuge
2. Claim all goodness from only God
3. Turn from other gods (negative mindsets are a god)
4. Affirm that God is all you need
5. Delight in your eternal inheritance
6. Praise your Counselor, eyes on Him
7. Claim a glad heart, say it, rejoice that God has not abandoned you to death and decay
8. Believe He shows you the path of life
9. Seek His presence and He will fill you with joy

None of us can afford this kind of counseling. It is priceless. Paid by the blood of Jesus.

There are 150 Psalms, all with a spiritual trajectory of what David or the credited Psalmist is going through, amidst a literal and figurative battlefield. They show how they circle back to their relationship with God. If we believe in the power of scripture, that it is God-breathed, this is some pretty good Psalm-therapy, don’t you think?

I can witness that it works. Give God’s Word a chance. More than a New York minute. Try it with some of the Psalms, and soon you will do so with other books in the Bible. It’s not enough to just “like” a scripture online.

When I stop the negative spin long enough to read His Word, He brings my joy to the surface, my joy rises above a mindset that will get me nowhere. My joy stops a mental defeat that is ready to take my day hostage for the price of being human, just by taking me off the spiritual sightline of who supplies my joy.

Remain in the Mindset of Jesus

Imagine, human if we accepted how close, how accessible, how intimate the joy of Jesus is in our hearts.  And if we were obedient to it.

Did you know that joy is the reason why Jesus tells his disciples about the vine and the branches, and the spiritual power behind remaining in His love?

Consider John 15

The Vine and the Branches

 

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

He uses the word “remain” eight times. Other words for “remain” include abide, endure, stay in the state of, the presence of. My word is connected. Stay connected to the vine to grow. He assures us that if we believe He is the vine, we will produce fruit. Joy is a fruit of the spirit.  

He tells us all of this right before he gives the commandment about the greatest love… laying down one’s life for one’s friends. Which He did, for all of us.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

Glorious Joy, Salvation by Grace… A Joyride with Jesus

Joy is the Greek word Chara in this scripture used to describe ones who rejoice, who are glad, and who have received joy. Chara is derived from two words:  ‘charis’ meaning “grace” or “gift”, or as I best relate to it, the divine influence of the heart, and the word ‘charos’ which means “rejoice” or “to express joy”.

So chara is a linking of inexpressible joy to the grace we received from Jesus.

I know which comes first.

Peter echoes the power of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John with a spiritual truth that is so hard to do as humans.  Yet with our acceptance of Jesus, we receive a glorious ending.

1 Peter 1:8-9

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Being filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy because I have accepted salvation is quite literally… a joyride with Jesus. It’s dangerous, short-lived by the world’s standards. But by Kingdom standards, it endures, because Jesus endured and sent the Holy Spirit to endure with us. The joyride is eternal because we remain in Him.

Anxiety, fear, worry, depression, weakness, sadness, grief, despair. These are real human battles. But we have God’s voice in our ear when we return to His Word, and let it connect us to our joy. You do not have to have the answers or navigate any solutions to earthly problems alone. Just commit taking the same first step: listen to His Word and pray. Go to the journey of so many people in His Word.

Right now, here’s my testimony: I would lay my earthly life down for this spiritual truth; there is no anxiety, no defeated mindset in the presence of Jesus. Because it is by grace that Jesus shares His joy with us.

Picture me standing tall, with arms wide open to accept His love. Picture me running for my Bible. I do it more and more. All the time. Because remaining in the vine, requires it.

Are you standing?

Are you getting up?

Are you sitting but thinking about it?

Are you comfortable with defeat?

Are you feeling too anxious to move?

Are you paralyzed by fear?

Get up and get into His Word. Jesus will continue to complete your joy.

Here’s John 15:11 again, because it is the only way to leave you today:

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.