Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense by Paul David Tripp

Author:Paul David Tripp [Tripp, Paul David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012000/REL012070/REL012010
ISBN: 9781433556784
Google: eU3zuQEACAAJ
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2018-11-15T23:57:28.823262+00:00

8

The Discouragement Trap

I couldn’t keep myself out of the hospital, and I’ve discovered that it’s very discouraging to face a new surgery before recovering from the one before. I’ve been discouraged to have no control over things going on inside my body. I’ve been discouraged that I am unable to do what I’ve been called and gifted to do and, in healthy circumstances, am excited to do. It is discouraging to get up in the morning already exhausted before I’ve done anything. It is discouraging to cancel ministry event after ministry event. It is discouraging to be confused about what God is doing and why he is doing it. It has all been very discouraging.

In one way or another, at one time or another, discouragement is the experience of every sufferer. It is one of the burdens added to the burden of what’s already being suffered. Beneath the suffering of physical sickness, loss, betrayal, or whatever other dark thing has entered the door is something way more powerful and dangerous. It is the spiritual war that rages in the heart of every sufferer. This is what I have been describing for you in the last several chapters. This war is a battle for the control of your heart, and whatever functionally rules your heart will then shape the way you see life and your desires, and it will control your words and behavior.

Let me say it this way: it’s natural in suffering to have moments of fear, but it’s dangerous and damaging when fear rules your heart. It’s quite normal to struggle with doubt when unexpected, unwanted, or difficult things enter your door, but it is very dangerous to let doubt of God begin to rule your heart and set the agenda for your life. When you’re suffering, it’s natural to look over the fence and wish that your life could be as easy as your neighbor’s. It’s altogether different to live with a heart that’s eaten by envy. So it is with discouragement. Of course, suffering is discouraging, but in the midst of your discouragement, it’s vital to understand that discouragement is a major aspect of the spiritual war that lives in the heart of every sufferer.

The question is not just whether you are discouraged; the question is what you are doing with your discouragement. The question is whether discouragement is progressively taking control of the way you see yourself, God, others, your present, your potential, your future, God’s promises and provisions, etc.

Jolene dragged herself to my office. As I walked behind her, it hit me that she even walked like a completely defeated person. It looked like every step took effort, as if she was pulling herself down the hall. She fell into my couch, and it was not so much that she had bad posture but that she had no posture at all. It was as if there was this lump of humanity in the corner of the couch. Of course, her head was down, and I think her eyes were closed, although it was hard to see her eyes.

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