Life often gets discouraging just because it is so tough. Because this world is fallen, everyday life can be relentlessly difficult and exhausting. This constant resistance wears us out emotionally and spiritually, which can cause a loss of perspective. We begin to see people, events, political movements, and institutions that appear to be more powerful than the God of our faith. We lose heart. Our motivation to fight starts slipping away bit by bit.

Here is a truth that you and I know very well. YESTERDAY’S spiritual passion cannot be TODAY’S  spiritual energy. Gordon MacDonald writes, “Passion quickly dissipates; it must be restored. Like the manna God gave the Israelites in the desert, spiritual passion spoils quickly. As Moses and his people had to collect manna daily, so must we restore spiritual passion regularly. We would be wise to know how it so quickly disappears and what we can do when that happens.” (Restoring Your Spiritual Passion). This episode addresses the question, “How should Christ-followers deal with those days when we are unmotivated, down, discouraged, and our spiritual energy gone?”
In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek. Coolies had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads. The first day they marched rapidly and went far. The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey. But the second morning these jungle tribesman refused to move. For some strange reason, they just sat and rested. On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, and that they were NOW waiting for their SOULS to catch up with their BODIES.”
How are we to function while we wait for the heart passion from our souls to catch up with the next day’s activities that we have to step into? This subject is crucial because we want to be motivated by our allegiance to Jesus, always. Only that desire to please him can keep us from falling into the destructive path of sin. But the reality of life is that ALL PASSIONS WANE. Let’s look into Scripture to observe 4 experiences of life that drain our spiritual passion and what we might learn that can help us push through dry, discouraging times in our walk with Christ.
Life Experience #1: Emotional Depletion
This experience is both a routine part of life and the result of going through intense emotional experiences—even though those experiences might be spiritual highs. I don’t know what the etymology is of the phrase mountaintop experience, but certainly the prophet Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel fits that description. It was the culmination of 3.5 years of intense prayer for the nation of Israel to repent from its idolatrous worship of Baal so that God would remove the curse of the drought in the land. After Baal is unmasked as a false God who could not send fire to consume the sacrifice, the fire of Yahweh fell. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “Yahweh, he is God; Yahweh, he is God.” And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there (1 Kings 18:38-40).
Elijah had to pray intensely for the rain to fall—seven times. Then he ran 18 miles to Jezreel. Elijah was as spiritually, emotionally, and physically spent as any man could be, but God’s supernatural actions had caused the revival of Israel to begin with the false prophets being slain and the people’s hearts turning back to Yahweh. King Ahab had seen God reveal himself as the true God, heard the people voice their allegiance to Yahweh, and stood by watching Elijah slaughter the false prophets. It was a total spiritual victory—except that it wasn’t. Queen Jezebel’s heart had been moved but not in repentance but to greater hatred of Elijah, whom she vowed to execute within 24 hours. With zero spiritual, emotional, or physical strength to do otherwise, Elijah runs for his life. He travels to Beersheba outside Jezebel’s kingdom, goes into the desert, and pleads with God, “take my life.”
“Elijah was simply drained. He had given out everything on the mountaintop; nothing was left…Individuals in a drained condition feel caught up in a sea of feelings that often runs counter to all the facts. There are strong senses of self-doubt and negativism. The mind seeks out all the possible minor and major errors that might have been made in the past hours, and then it amplifies them until all positive contributions are merely blotted out. Drained people become super critical of self and, of course, of others. They are convinced they have made fools of themselves, that nothing done or said will be remembered or implemented” (Ibid).
Emotional Depletion Happens: Application Principles
#1. Beware that when our emotional tank is on, empty, the pull towards something that feels good intensifies. Pastors watch porn on Sunday nights more than any other time because they are emotionally depleted by their ministry Sunday. I think God shaped our emotional tanks to be refilled through things we ENJOY—things that bring the good feeling of pleasure. But it must be lawful.
#2. Put three habits in place to keep our hearts emotionally renewed.

Find joy in your love relationship with God both ways—by delighting in the wonderful being that he is, and by basking in his delight in you. As surely as a child is the delight of his father and a bride the delight of the bridegroom, you are a delight to God. He enjoys YOU.
Build the brotherhood friendships that Jesus modeled with Peter, James, and John. One successful Christian businessman laments, “In one year, we’ve seen a tenfold increase in business, and that’s exciting. But I’m tired because I feel alone. Yes, I have a wife who is very supportive; but there are no men supporting me. When I read Exodus 17 of Moses being lifted up by other men, I watch a TEAM of men fight the Amalekites, the hated enemies of the Israelites. Moses gets tired and yet Aaron and Hur, his two friends, hold him up. God, I need some Aarons and Hurs in my life to join me.”
Build a flourishing love relationship with your wife. Certainly, there are days when unselfishly trying to love the other drains our emotional tank. But over the long haul, our romance with our wives should be adding to our emotional reserves. Rejoice in the wife of your youth…be intoxicated always in her love (Prov 5:18-19). That is a picture of two renewed hearts.

Life Experience #2: Everything is so Hard
Life often gets discouraging just because it is so tough. Because this world is fallen, everyday life can be relentlessly difficult and exhausting. This constant resistance wears us out emotionally and spiritually, which can cause a loss of perspective. We begin to see people, events, political movements, and institutions that appear to be more powerful than the God of our faith. We lose heart. Our motivation to fight starts slipping away bit by bit.
Authors Anne and Ray Ortland, in their book, You Don’t Have to Quit, pose this question: “Is there a secret that could help you stick it out through your darkest, most trying situations, until you emerge truly victorious?” In other words, “how can you keep from losing heart when everyday life is SO HARD?” They continue, “When you think about it, everybody’s had those periods. And the people who have made it have come through a time sequence—a time sequence that could be the clue to your making it, too: a) They began, in some new situation or effort; b) They hit problems and somehow worked their way through them; c) They came out on top.” 
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God brought awakening to the American Indians, adding more than one hundred to Brainerd’s growing congregation. While experiencing sickness, extreme hardship, and loneliness, Brainerd often took up his pen to write of his increased love for the American Indians under his ministerial care. His heart longed to show them the glory of Christ through the preaching and teaching of Scripture. He spent hours in prayer, asking God to bring about their salvation and growth in Christ. However, his time among the American Indian tribes of New England was mingled with periods of severe depression and sickness. His diary is filled with entries chronicling these spiritual and physical battles. 

On a spring day in 1747, mounted on his horse, a frail twenty-nine year old David Brainerd (1718–1747) rode into the yard of the Northampton parsonage of New England pastor Jonathan Edwards. Before this day, Brainerd and Edwards were relative strangers to one another. However, the summer of 1747 nurtured a growing friendship between the two men culminating in one of the most influential missionary biographies in the history of American evangelicalism.
Childhood and Unspeakable Glory
Born on Easter Sunday, April 20, 1718, in Haddam, Connecticut, David was one of nine children born to Hezekiah and Dorothy Brainerd. The Brainerd family were descendants of a long line of men and women noteworthy for their religious zeal. It was said that David’s father, Hezekiah, was a man of “great personal dignity and self-restraint . . . and of extreme scrupulousness in the Christian life.”
As in most eighteenth century New England families with Puritan lineage, David and his eight siblings attended daily family worship consisting of Scripture readings and the singing of psalms. In addition, numerous chores around the house and farm awaited as they rose very early each morning.
David’s father died when he was only nine years old. A month before his fourteenth birthday, his mother died, which left young David incredibly distraught. Vividly depicted in his voluminous diaries, from this point until the end of his life, David experienced the dichotomy of living with the constant fluctuation between overwhelming joy and spiritual darkness. After the death of his mother, David moved to East Haddam to live with his sister. When he turned nineteen, he inherited a farm, but after only one year of farming, he decided education was vital for his preparation to enter the Christian ministry. He returned to East Haddam but remained unconverted. However, on the Lord’s Day, July 12, 1739, after a long battle with his resistance to the doctrines of the sovereignty of God and original sin, Brainerd wrote:
The Lord, I trust, brought me to a hearty desire to exalt him, to set him on the throne and to “seek first his Kingdom,” i.e. principally and ultimately to aim at his honor and glory as the King and sovereign of the universe, which is the foundation of the religion of Jesus . . . I felt myself in a new world.
David had experienced an “unspeakable glory” within his soul. He was twenty-one years old.
Yale College and Awakening
In early September 1739, only two months after his conversion, Brainerd entered Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Dan Herron, a PCA pastor—or teaching elder—accused of sexual harassment, says the women making claims against him are lying and has sued them for defamation. Several presbyteries have passed measures requesting the PCA intervene. “For an accused teaching elder to sue his accusers in a civil court—it is ugly,” said Steve Marusich, a pastor in the Central Indiana Presbytery who has been closely involved in the presbytery’s investigation.

As the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) discusses its response to abuse at its annual General Assembly this week, a case involving a pastor suing former congregants over allegations against him is making its way through civil court and the denomination’s own system.
Dan Herron, a PCA pastor—or teaching elder—accused of sexual harassment, says the women making claims against him are lying and has sued them for defamation. Several presbyteries have passed measures requesting the PCA intervene.
“For an accused teaching elder to sue his accusers in a civil court—it is ugly,” said Steve Marusich, a pastor in the Central Indiana Presbytery who has been closely involved in the presbytery’s investigation.
The country got a glimpse of defamation cases around abuse allegations with the recent Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial, where the actor accused his former spouse of defamation over an op-ed that implied he had abused her.
After the ruling awarding Depp $10 million in damages, some legal experts worried that more abusers would use defamation as a strategy to silence victims. The threat of such lawsuits could discourage victims from coming forward.
While church disputes don’t usually turn into legal fights, Herron is among several pastors and ministry leaders who have filed defamation suits in recent years. These kinds of cases are costly and often drag out for years, grinding down victims and denominations trying to separately enforce church discipline. Civil proceedings during a church trial mean that witnesses in the church trial might be afraid of testifying for fear of being sued, or of other consequences in the civil trial. Civil cases also require extensive evidence gathering that might interfere with a church prosecutor’s investigation.
“Filing a civil suit—we just do not do that,” said Dave Haigler, a PCA ruling elder who works as a federal administrative law judge. “I don’t think there’s even anything in the BCO [the PCA’s Book of Church Order] about that; it just violates Scripture.” Elders referenced among other Scriptures the admonition in 1 Corinthians 6 to not take believers to court.
Haigler previously served for two terms on the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission (SJC), which is essentially a high court for presbytery disputes. Haigler can’t remember the SJC taking original jurisdiction in a case like this, but this month the SJC agreed to try the case against Herron. That ecclesiastical investigation and trial will coincide with pastor’s civil case.
Over the past year, as more congregants are speaking up about sexual abuse and spiritual abuse, some of the accused are likewise pushing back in court.
In March, Colorado megachurch pastor Jonathan Wiggins of Rez.Church sued former staff and members for defamation over accusations that he was in a sexual relationship with an assistant pastor, among other allegations. The church leadership told the congregation it found “no moral, financial, or doctrinal failure” on Wiggins’s part.
In June, a Maryland pastor filed suit against three people, his son-in-law among them, over a blog full of allegations against him, including that he had urged a victim of domestic abuse to stay with her husband.
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