I’ve shared before how the brain injury makes it difficult for me to overcome negative emotions because there’s a physiological disconnect between the “thinking” and “feeling” portions of my brain (short-circuiting the wisdom that if you renew your mind with truth long enough, your heart will follow suit). As a counselor, I’ve also spent time listening to people’s struggles with sin and suffering and praying about the best way to help them move forward biblically. My struggles, as well as some of those I’ve walked alongside, served as part of the inspiration for our second book, Hello, God.

These journeys have also taught me to love Psalm 100, both as a source of encouragement for myself and for others. It’s very brief, but I believe it offers some universal principles for joy:

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
     Serve the LORD with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!

 Know that the LORD, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

 For the LORD is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100:1-5

First of all, joy – and rest – comes from acknowledging that God is sovereign and good. So much of my anxiety and sadness can be traced back to wishing situations and people would become something other than they are, which at its root suggests that I don’t truly believe God knows what is best for me – or the people in my life. And I suspect this may be true for a lot of people who struggle with these emotions. He is creator and shepherd – completely powerful, and completely personally invested in the lives of each one of his flock.

Second, I love Psalm 100’s reassurances about the Lord’s character and his heart toward his people. No matter what is going on in the moment, we can trust these declarations that God’s love and faithfulness are eternal. There are times – even long periods – when our circumstances may tempt us to doubt this, but the psalmist encourages us to zoom out from our personal experience and survey the testimony of redemptive history. Once we consider how God has faithfully, relentlessly pursued his rebellious human creatures from the Garden of Eden right up to the present day, pouring out his unbridled wrath on his own precious Son so that he could offer us salvation, things begin to look different. And every time I consciously remind myself that my eternity is secured because of what Christ suffered in my place on the cross, whatever trial I happen to be facing takes a different hue.

As the Apostle Paul famously wrote, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-17)

See you tomorrow!