A Lifting Up for the Downcast, by William Bridge (1600-1671).
Channel: Take Up The Cross
Date: 2018-03-04

A Lifting Up for the Downcast, by William Bridge (1600-1671).

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 
~ John 14:1  

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
~ Psalm 42:5

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
~ Psalm 77:2-3

When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
~ Jeremiah 8:18

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
~ Isaiah 40:28-31

And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
~ Lamentations 3:17-23 

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

On Depression
The more you are humbled by God’s free love and grace, the more you will be humbled and the less discouraged . . . If you will be truly humbled and not be discouraged depressed]. . . then trace all your sins to your unbelief and lay the stress and weight of all your sorrow upon that sin. . . . if a man can trace every sin to the fountain, the head sin, he will be most humbled. Now what is the great sin, the fountain of sin, the head sin of all your sins, but unbelief. . . if you can present God to your soul under the notion of His general goodness, as good in Himself, you will never be discouraged, but truly humbled.

Loss of Peace
It is true the saints grieve, but then dolent et de dolore gaudent (they grieve and rejoice that they can grieve): they are troubled for sin; and they have rest and quiet in this, that they can be troubled for their sin: they have no peace in their sin; but they have peace in this, that they can have no peace in their sin. … No, they will say, I am glad that I am grieved for sin; and the Lord knows, it is my trouble that I can be grieved no more; I have quiet and peace in that I am troubled.

True Peace May Be Interrupted
Dispute not with God lest you be confounded; dispute not with Satan lest you be deceived.

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