Philippians 4:4-7 Wrote:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The third Sunday of Advent is sometimes used to focus on joy. In our church we light a differently coloured Advent candle than on the other three Sundays, as if to highlight that there is something particularly special about joy and there is, but it might just be that of the four Advent themes (Hope, Peace, Joy and Love), joy is the one we find the most difficult to get a handle on in our daily lives. This is certainly true for me, anyway.

The thing is that our daily lives can be, at times, unrelentingly joyless. It seems that sometimes all the daily grind achieves is to slowly reduce us to lifeless dust. And that’s before we consider any of the deeper sorrows that may assail us. How can we be joyful when we have suffered hurt and loss; grief, depression and anxiety?

In his final exhortations to the church in Philippi, the apostle Paul doesn’t try to answer that question, at least not directly. Instead, he doesn’t just tell the Philippian Christians to rejoice, he commands it. But, crucially, he doesn’t command them to rejoice in general terms, but to rejoice in the Lord. God is to the be the source and the inspiration of our joy. His mere existence ought to be enough - that seems to be the implication, but there’s more to this passage than that.

Paul seems to segue strangely from rejoicing to being gentle, then reminds us that God is near, then dances on towards prayer as a solution to worrying and a source of peace. It all seems a little random, but surely he must have had some order in mind?

Perhaps that order comes from the realisation that God is near and that we can pray to him at any time about anything - that he knows the depth of our sorrows, the pull and tug of our stresses and strains and that, if we but ask him of it, he will grant us peace in the midst of all our trying circumstances. Instead of getting caught up in the whirlwind of life, then, we are to approach all things with gentleness - gentleness in our approach to others, yes, but perhaps gentleness in our approach to ourselves, as we love ourselves as God loves us.

It is then when we are wrapped up in the very nearness of God, letting him tend to our wounds - both physical and emotional - that we can perhaps begin to see how we might rejoice in the Lord always. No matter what life brings us, no matter what dire circumstances may seem to strike out at us from the darkness of the world, we can centre ourselves on God, bring all our troubles to him and find peace in his very nearness - peace to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

And when we give in to that peace, when we let the world fade away, even for a moment, then, though our cheeks may still be damp with tears, we can - we will - rejoice!