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Can a mere human like me really rejoice in God while battling anxiety? Or do I have to wait for the dust to settle on my circumstances before trying to uncover joy again?

I probably don’t have to tell you about the current plague of anxiety in our society. Jonathan Haidt calls children born after 1995 “the anxious generation.” He cites reports showing anxiety levels doubling in recent decades, especially among 18-to-25-year-olds. Depression has climbed a similar path. Most concerning, suicides have spread like a dark and poisonous cloud. Nearly twice as many young men took their own lives in 2020 than in 2010; among young women, the number rose 167 percent. I have two young sons and a daughter, and their little faces make those otherwise clinical percentages dreadfully, fearfully human. What if my girl was one of those numbers? That thought alone threatens to add me to the hyper-anxious.

But this article is not mainly about the 18.2 percent (and climbing) of adults reporting moderate to severe levels of anxiety. This article is about you and your anxieties. When you lie in your bed at night, with all your hopes and hurts and unknowns, what worries wage war on your heart and rob you of joy? Could it be possible — truly, unexpectedly possible — to rejoice in God while battling the fears that sometimes plague you and me?

Not About Anything?

As I think back on the anxieties that have crept onto my pillow, even just over the last couple of years — health trouble, house trouble, work trouble, financial trouble, family trouble, and more — they’re not happy moments for me. They’re difficult moments, painful moments, can’t-this-just-be-over moments. I don’t associate them with rejoicing, at least not at first.

When I remember going to war with those worries, though, I think almost immediately of two verses that have been a sword and shield on my battlefield. In Philippians 4:6–7, the apostle Paul writes,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

It’s a startling command and promise: Don’t be anxious about anything. Depend on God through prayer, and you’ll experience the peace of God in everything. That’s not exaggeration or naivete; that’s a God-wrought, God-breathed promise. Put your particular fear into the verse — “Do not be anxious about [blank]” — and it wouldn’t change what Paul said.

When the apostle says “anything,” he means anything. For those who know and love Christ, there is nothing in your health, your house, your life that God can’t cover with real heartfelt peace. But not only peace.

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Just two verses before Paul addresses anxiety and promises this mind-blowing peace, the apostle says something even more stunning:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. . . . Do not be anxious about anything. (Philippians 4:4–6)

Don’t be anxious about anything. Rejoice in the Lord always. This God not only holds out peace in every uncertain circumstance, but with that peace, he holds out joy — an always joy. Can you bear to believe that? Do you believe that the God of infinite strength and worth is able not only to still the raging storms in your mind but also to place a blazing lantern of joy in the darkness of your boat? Do you believe that the God who daily caters for 120 million cardinals and tailors the brilliant petals of billions of tulips might be able to find and satisfy you in this valley?

“One way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties.”

You probably know someone who has survived horrible uncertainty with surprising joy. Who’s been one of those joy-in-anxiety miracles in your life? When you think of him or her, you likely don’t see the bright, lighthearted face we often picture when we think of joy. No, joy in the valley of uncertainty is often a heavier, more serious kind of gladness. It’s not the joy of a five-year-old learning to ride a bike (I love that joy too). It’s more, I imagine, like the joy of a soldier finally getting the upper hand in a fierce battle, with his closest friends at his shoulder.

There’s a joy buried in every season of uncertainty, even on battlefields. That’s why Paul can say, “Rejoice in the Lord always” — and then repeat himself: “again I will say, rejoice.”

Even in Anxiety

So, is joy possible in anxiety? Is your anxiety beyond the scope of God’s “always”? One way God proves his glory in the universe is by holding and satisfying his people through terrible uncertainties. And there’s no uncertainty too great for him — not even yours.

We need to remember that Paul wrote these verses from the shadows of prison — and he knew he might not make it out this time (Philippians 1:20). His worry was death. When he wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything” and “Rejoice always,” he wasn’t printing pithy Christianese slogans from a place of comfort and security. If any of us has reasons to be anxious, he had more.

And yet right there — in the injustice of prison, in the hostility of persecution, at the very doorstep of death — he could rejoice because he always had more reasons to rejoice than he had to worry. He could say, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

If he could rejoice even then, can’t you rejoice even now?

DesiringGod. When Anxiety Clouds Reality. Marshall Segal. September 3, 2025.

Marshall Segal https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/when-anxiety-clouds-reality