Dark Night of the Soul
Doctrine and Devotion
Joe Thorn & Jimmy Fowler
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Christians are called to “walk in the light,” (Eph. 5:8; 1 Jn. 1:7) and yet in God’s providence there are times when the faithful find themselves walking in a kind of darkness where God seems to be silent and distant. Many refer to this as a “dark night of the soul.” How is this dark night different from the more common forms of depression or affliction? And, is there a way to persevere through the night and find the light of morning?
RECOMMENDED READING
First we have a couple free online resources for you, and then some books that can help when you’re in a dark night, or even just wrestling with depression.
The Dark Night of the Soul by R.C. Sproul
The Desire of the Soul in Spiritual Darkness by Spurgeon
Spiritual Depression by Martin Lloyd Jones
A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge
The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes
Spurgeon’s Sorrows: Realistic Hope for those who Suffer from Depression by Zack Eswine
Christians Get Depressed Too by David Murray
(Amazon links are affiliate links that help support Doctrine and Devotion)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome. Welcome to Doctrine and Devotion. The podcast that explores Christian faith and practice from a |
| 0:18.8 | Reformed Baptist perspective. My name is Joe Thorne. I am the lead pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in St Charles, Illinois. |
| 0:24.8 | And I'm Joe Fowler, Executive Pastor at Redeemer Fellowship. |
| 0:27.6 | Now, in case anybody missed it, you know, we live stream our sermons now on the YouTube. And even |
| 0:37.4 | afterwards you can watch the live stream or you can watch just a sermon. They |
| 0:41.3 | cut just that part out. Yeah you can just just go to the sermon itself, I believe now I'm 99% sure so what you can do though if you go there |
| 0:49.5 | You can see how Jimmy dresses up for Christmas during the advent season at your you know what |
| 0:56.7 | happens you know Christmas time and Easter people did to dress up a little bit you know they come |
| 1:00.0 | to church and they wear like a like the right colors is all that wear like the right colors. |
| 1:02.8 | Vast. And all that. |
| 1:03.8 | Is this the right colors? |
| 1:04.8 | You have a Christmas shirt on. |
| 1:06.3 | And white t-shirt. |
| 1:08.0 | Yeah, but it's Christmas. |
| 1:09.1 | It certainly is. |
| 1:10.3 | And it actually references one of, it's interesting because it's it's beautiful and |
| 1:14.9 | tragic all at the same time because Jimmy's wearing a t-shirt that reference is not only one of the |
| 1:18.8 | greatest office parties that has ever happened in American history, but also one of the greatest terrorist attacks that have ever happened on American soil. |
| 1:28.0 | 1988, 1988, the Nachatomi Plaza Christmas Party. |
| 1:34.6 | Yeah, yeah, I felt like forever remember. |
| 1:38.0 | Never forget. |
| 1:38.8 | H-tag, never forget. |
... |
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