Remember when I said suffering is having what you don’t want and wanting what you don’t have? Subtract your wants and you’ll have contentment. It’s a way of equalizing your desires and circumstances. The apostle Paul was an expert at this arithmetic. For example, he was glad his Philippian friends were sending him gifts. “I […]
He is the answer and we need him
“In order to suffer without dwelling on our own affliction,” Thomas Merton once contemplated, “we must think about a greater affliction, and turn to Christ on the cross. In order to suffer without hate, we must drive out bitterness from our heart by loving Jesus. In order to suffer without hope of compensation, we should […]
Sunday’s coming
Highlight Longings: God created us for Paradise, but we now live in a desert. So we thirst (John 7:37-39), we suffer (John 16:33), and we groan for home (Romans 8:18-25). Biblical discipleship counselors keep their hearts and ears attuned to the discrepancy in the soul between what people were designed for (Paradise) and what they […]
Remember Again
It’s another way of saying: Never doubt in the darkness what you once believed in the light. When hardship settles in to stay, dark and brooding skepticism surges over us in a tide of doubt and fear. The only sure dike against a flood of feelings is memory. We must recall sunnier times when we […]
Bitterness and Simple Faith
She realized her seething hatred was just as heinous, just as nauseating as the sins committed against her. She was no better than her parents. As surely as her father thrust himself on her, she had in her imagination, thrust a knife, with hot fury, into his chest. Glenda could have easily been the one […]
to embrace you with is love
But it doesn’t stop there. Can the Father turn a deaf ear to the pleas of his own Son? (If Jim can’t, you can bet God can’t. And if he can, we’re in Big Trouble.) The answer resounds from an empty tomb three days later: No, may it never be! And because the Father raised […]
shame separates—sorrow connects
Satan seeks to fill our souls with shame that separates. Paul labels it “worldly sorrow [that] brings death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Satanic shame involves self-contempt and self-disgust that causes me to despair of all hope that God could love a sinner like me. Condemning shame convinces me that God has forever justly rejected me. Godly […]
Asking for a Better Solution
The rest of the passage was equally helpful. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” At a time in my life when I was struggling with worry, I decided that Paul must have meant that I could ask God for a better solution to the problem […]
what is or is not a disease
Instead of assuming that everyone with a depressed mood has a disease that requires medical treatment, it could be that we are looking at people who are simply sad for a variety of identifiable reasons. If we are going to help those who struggle with mood disorders, we need to have a better understanding of […]