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Transcript 321B — Discouragement and the Christian
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes, Mr. Camping. I'd like to ask you a question about discouragement. I'm a new Christian. And I feel the Spirit sometimes, and then other times I feel kind of discouraged. I wonder if you have experienced that, or if born again Christians do experience discouragement.
HC: The question is a very practical question. Sometimes this caller feels very discouraged. He doesn't feel the presence of the Lord in his life the way he feels it ought to be. He wonders if this is typical of the Christian life. And I suppose the question might also be added, what can we do about this?
Yes, that's not untypical at all, that we feel discouraged. We take our eyes off Christ, we look at the circumstances around us. And it's very easy to become discouraged. A classic illustration is offered to us in the Bible. Peter is in the boat, and the sea is very stormy. And then Jesus comes walking to them on the waves. And Peter, in his great desire to be close to Christ, says, "Can I come to you?" And Jesus says, "Come." And Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the waves to Jesus.
Well, then he takes his eyes off of Christ, and he looks at the waves. Of course you know what happens. He begins to sink. He's looking at the circumstances. He's looking at the frustrations, as it were, at the storm of life all around him. He's got his eyes off of Christ, and he begins to sink, and he cries out to Christ, "I perish." And then the Lord holds out His hand to him and rescues him. Now that's an excellent illustration of the way our life is.
As long as we keep our eyes on Christ, then all goes well. But then we don't read and study the Word the way we ought to, we're not praying as regularly as we should, or as certainly and intensely to the Lord as we should. We're disappointed in this, or we're disappointed in that. And it's a vicious circle. We begin to really go down, and we get a sense of depression.
Now the solution to this problem is to start feeding on the Word. Go to the Bible, and start reading the Bible. Let God speak to our hearts again. Let God guide us into putting our eyes back on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we begin to read the Word, we're going to begin to identify with the word, and the strength will come again. We'll begin to call upon the Lord in prayer, ''Oh Lord, forgive me for taking my eyes off Thee. Forgive me for my anxieties and my frustrations."
Philippians 4:6 puts it so very well: "Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to the Lord. And the peace of God which passeth understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." "Prayer and supplication" has to do with going to God in prayer, pouring out to Him.
This is the path out of this kind of depression.
CALLER: So in other words, when we are at that level, as long as we keep trying, or as long as we keep praying, we'll bring ourselves above that level?
HC: As long as we keep feeding on the Word and communicating with God through prayer. If you are physically suffering from malnutrition, everything is going to look bad. Every little rebuff that you have is going to seem very terrible, if you're really suffering from physical hunger and thirst. Now what is the cure for physical malnutrition? It's to start eating food, isn't it? So you build back your strength.
Christians will do the very same thing. They'll begin to suffer from spiritual malnutrition. And it's a vicious circle. You aren't reading the Bible the way you should. And so the disappointments magnify. And because you aren't feeding on the Word you therefore react in the flesh over against these disappointments, so that you become even more disappointed and more depressed. And then, because you're not feeding on the Word, you continue to react in the flesh this way, so that you become more depressed. It's a vicious circle. And it draws you down.
Now the way to break it is to start feeding on the Word. Many a time in my own personal life, when I have found that life just doesn't look quite the way it ought to, when it seems so futile, I have found that one of the most wonderful things to do is to just say to myself, "Tonight I'm going to spend all evening, hours and hours, just reading the Word, going to the Psalms, or going anywhere in the Word. And it isn't long until things get back in their proper relationship.
CALLER: Sometimes I lose concentration, or I feel frustrated at reading the Bible because in many areas it is very complicated, and such a lot of it is allegory. And I really can't comprehend the Word. I hope that I can, but . . .
HC: Yes, but while there is the allegorical, deep spiritual truth that flows through the Bible, you still have the historical example, the historical record that flows all the way through also. Secondly, if you persist, and if you read the Bible with a pen or a pencil in your hand, so that you underline a verse now and then that really speaks to your heart, you will find that it will begin to have new meaning.
And if you will read the Bible prayerfully, you're going to find a lot more verses that begin to pop out. One of the greatest hindrances to reading the Word is not the Word itself, but the fact that we really don't want to hear what it says. If we're living in sin, if we have a sin that we're not confessing to the Lord, we don't really want to read the Bible, because we feel troubled by the Word, and we don't want to be troubled. And it may be that there is a sin in our life that we have to confess and get straight with the Lord about before anything else.
But if you persist in reading the Word, and really praying the Lord that He will give you a real obedience to the Word, then even if there is sin that ought to be confessed in our life, it's going to come in sharp focus. We're going to have to do something about that sin.
CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Camping.
HC: You're welcome. Good night.