Don Whitney, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed. In these selected excerpts, Whitney will help us consider ways to simplify our journaling, our prayer, our Christian life in general, our priorities, and our time in Scripture. In this post on time in Scripture , Whitney will share how Scripture helps him recover from the burdens of life.
Every now and then my heart is so broken, or my grief so deep, or my burden so heavy that I drop down in my desk chair, open the Bible, put my head in my hands and cry out, “O Father, please comfort me through Your Word.” Or, “Lord, I’m so discouraged. I don’t know if I can go on. Give me hope!”
How does He answer? Sometimes it’s through promises, such as, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Or He answers through the assurances of doctrinal passages like Romans 8:18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Or He may reply through the comfort of psalms penned by writers with the same passions coursing through my soul: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5).
Overall, I think God means for us to draw patience, comfort, and hope from the Scriptures by seeing there how He has always accomplished His purposes throughout the world and at all times, and then believing that He will accomplish them in our lives. I can read the Old Testament, and then see how God fulfilled it in Jesus Christ and the church. I can read in the New Testament of both the power of Christ and His tender mercies toward His own. Then I encounter the repeated promises that Jesus will return for His people and take us to an eternal home of joy more glorious than all the sunsets in the history of the world combined. Through these holy, historic, and living words God grants patience with His timing and providence in my life. Through these God-breathed lines I experience the comfort of His presence and precious promises. And in the pages of Scripture He gives me the hope of a better world that is one day closer.
In His mercy, the Lord encourages us through people, circumstances, and countless other ways. But there’s no simpler, purer, or more direct means of receiving His patience, comfort, or hope than by going to His Word and asking for it.
DONALD S. WHITNEY
Don Whitney holds the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is professor of biblical spirituality and the director of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. He is the author of several books.