Come Down, Lord!

Many of us go through periods of discouragement. Sometimes it’s how we have been treated: what someone said or did, how we were misunderstood or misrepresented. Sometimes it’s an unhappy work environment. Sometimes it’s our walk with God: guilt, shame, and frustration over sin, the feeling that God has turned His face away, or a lack of zeal and joy. Sometimes it’s loss: the loss of a family member or the loss of friendships. Sometimes it’s medical issues: whether physical suffering or grief at what is being lost. The other night—after days of feeling encouraged in the Lord—I went to bed feeling very discouraged. I had reached a new low physically and was thinking about what this meant… or at least what I thought it meant.* It felt as though more was being taken from me, and that the list of things I could no longer do was growing. I prayed and went to sleep. In the night I dreamed of worship, and I woke with the thought, He is risen ( Luke 24:6 )! And that was all I needed. That per...

We all know  what  it  is to be discouraged and  sometimes even depressed.  These are night seasons when we long for the morning.  In such times it is hard to find our way out.  Reading becomes difficult and often in my experience adds to the sense of failure and futility.  I am one who loves biographies, but there are times when I can hardly bea r to get through one.  When I am confronted with my own weakness and failure and feeling low it is almost too discouraging to read of men (or women) whose lives were marked by such consistent faithfulness and fruitfulness.  I believe my discouragement in such times is due - at least partly - to pride (and perhaps as R. Erskine said "a legalistic spirit"), so I try to read anyway.  But in those 'night' seasons I don't read with the same relish or edification.  Still, there are books that have helped me immensely in those times , and I want to share a few of them here.   ...