Joy Over AnxietySample

Joy is Vulnerability

It’s no surprise we live in an anxious world. With increasing busyness, sickness, relational stress, and defeating news, the world seems like it’s spinning in a hopeless direction.  

Yet, in the middle of this, we’re reminded one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. We have joy inside us. It’s buried deep, giving us a quiet calm and stability in a world of anxiety.

How can we bring this joy to the surface? How can we navigate an anxious world with joy?

In this three-day Bible plan, we’ll walk through the three actions you can take to keep a joyful heart in anxious times.

The first action is vulnerability.

Hebrews 12:2 states that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. There was joy in what he did on the cross, but to get to this joy, he had to experience a moment of deep vulnerability.

In Matthew 26, Jesus tells James and John that he is grieved. In this profound moment at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is letting his emotions be known to the people closest to him. After this moment, he prays to God laying bare his suffering and anguish.

The Bible is clear that Jesus was practicing vulnerability, realizing that honesty about his emotions will help him live out his purpose on the cross. 

But in our everyday lives, we don’t follow Jesus’ example here. In our anguish, stress, worry, and fear, we don’t practice vulnerability with our community. We don’t draw close to our loved ones. We’re not honest about our emotional experiences. 

Instead, we hide. We bottle up what we’re actually feeling and hope we’ll somehow arrive at joy. 

For Jesus to embrace the joy set before him, he first had to be honest and vulnerable about his emotions. He wasn’t painting a positive picture over what he was feeling. He wasn’t smiling when he was arrested. He was showing up fully as himself.

The first action of joy in an anxious world is to be honest about what you’re feeling. This opens us up to embrace the complete range of our emotions, and arrive at the fullness of joy. 

Today, pray God will help you show up fully as yourself and be honest about what you’re feeling.