“When discouragement sets in and becomes the lens through which you see life, when it forms your assumptions about your life, and when it begins to shape your functional theology, you tend to complain.”- Paul David Tripp
“Yet, you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.’ “- Deuteronomy 11:26-27 (ESV)
As Paul David Tripp continues Chapter 8 of Suffering, he discusses the first damaging result of letting discouragement take root in your heart in the midst of suffering.
1. Discouragement: Vertical Complaint. Discouragement, Pastor Tripp notes, is a normal part of earthly life. But, how you face and deal with discouragement shapes how you live your life. Hence, the author states, chronically discouraged people find more things wrong than right. Furthermore, they tend to see more:
- darkness than light
- injustice than justice
- hate than love
- rejection than acceptance
In addition, discouragement distorts your perspective, although you’re convinced that you’re seeing life accurately. Since you’re predisposed to see more brokenness than blessing, you feel justified to complain. And before long, unchecked complaint becomes your default language.
Most noteworthy, Pastor Tripp stresses, purely horizontal complaint doesn’t exist alone. For example, when you complain about people in your life, in reality you also offer vertical complaint about the God who ordained all those people in your life. At this point, then, you move beyond simply saying that life stinks. Instead, you now say that your life stinks because God isn’t good.
Finally, ever sufferer needs their assumptions of life challenged by (a) the clarifying truths of Scripture and (b) the loving corrections of the body of Christ.
Today’s question: What Bible verses boost you when the lens of discouragement distorts your view? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A state of moral paralysis”
