Rejoice

Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV) says

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness
be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 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."

I've heard the "Rejoice in the Lord always" part time and time again. Not being the sort of person who finds it easy to rejoice part-time, let alone always, it kinda baffles me. Okay, baffled isn't quite the right word there, it pretty much goes in one ear, out the other. “You don’t know what I’ve been through” is one of the first things that comes to mind.

In writing, context is everything, and it makes a world of difference here. The next few verses make the ‘rejoice’ part real. The Lord is here. God is with us, everywhere, from school to our dark bedrooms at night. In sickness and health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer (I was just at a wedding, pops into mind)…. We shouldn’t be anxious (for God is right here), but in everything pray, and ask God with humbleness whatever it is we need to ask.
But in everything, pray. Sounds so easy, but for many, it’s a pretty hard thing. Believe me, I know that praying can be really difficult. Most of the time I have no idea what to pray about or, more often, how to pray. A number of years ago, I read this bit from Romans.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that
words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's
will.

In my weakness, which is really the level I operate on regularly, I know I don't pray what I should, and I know I pray things sarcastically and full of "but" statements. Or I just don’t pray at all. What an amazing, comforting thing to know the Holy Spirit takes the groanings of our deepest selves to God. And the Spirit does it in a way that lines up with what God would have for us.
It’s in my weakness that I do not know what to pray. It's in my weakness that I get hung up on not knowing. But it is in my weakness that the cries of my soul are taken to God. It is in the times when we groan at the very thought of rejoicing that our groans are carried to the ears of Christ. And it is in that time of vulnerability that the will of God is carried out in our lives, whether we know it or not. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. The Spirit takes the cries of our broken spirits to the Father, and leaves instead the peace of God in its place. That alone is reason to rejoice.