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27th May 2026
WednesdayReflection
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John Piper
founder and teacher of Desiring God.org
"What to do when your spirits
sink"
.... Psalm 40:1-3
We've been talking a lot about enjoying Jesus. I've even tried to make the case that the very nature of saving faith is the awakening of the enjoyment of Jesus.
And I pointed out that this can be very unsettling for people because everybody knows that our actual experience of enjoying Jesus goes up and down - so, to attach the enjoyment of Jesus to saving faith can sound like your salvation becomes fragile or jeopardized.
But Christian salvation is anything but fragile.
And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.
..... Romans 8:30
That is the golden chain of unbreakable assurance.
If you have been justified by faith, there is no condemnation, and you are as good as glorified, because God keeps his own.
God keeps.
I like to ask people - I'll ask you - "What makes you think you will wake up a Christian tomorrow morning?"
The answer you give to that question tells a lot about your theology - your view of God and his salvation.
And the answer is not, "Because I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I will use my free will to trust Jesus in the morning."
You don't know any such thing.
What you do know is Jude 24-25:
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to bring you faultless and joyful before his glorious presence - 25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now, and forever and ever! Amen.
That's what we know. God keeps those whom he calls.
God's sovereign grip on us is the ground of our assurance.
He will hold us fast. "For my Saviour loves me so; he will hold me fast."
(the beautiful chorus of the modern hymn)
But we don't solve the problem of the ups and downs of our joy by pretending that there are no ups and downs in our faith.
Jesus speaks of little faith and great faith.
The disciples ask him to increase their faith. Paul speaks of growing faith (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
So, whether we focus on faith in Jesus or on enjoying Jesus, life is war.
We fight for faith and we fight for joy.
If you put your feet up, you will be overrun by the enemy.
Whether you are 18 or 80, the fight of faith - the fight for joy - is a fight to the end.
At the end of his life, Paul said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).
So, that's what I want to focus on: the rise and fall of faith, the rise and fall of joy in Jesus - and especially the fall: what to do when your spirits sink.
One of the recurring patterns of life in the Psalms is getting into a pit and getting out again.
Many psalms are descriptions of the sinking of our spirits, when we feel spiritually dry and sometimes wonder if we are even a Christian.
We lack the kind of joy we know we should have, and we are drawn away by other things.
It can be a very scary season.
And the question I'm trying to answer is whether those seasons are normal, and what we should do when they come.
One of my favourite statements of this pattern of life comes from David's experience found in Psalm 40..
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
These verses present a pattern of life at least part of which every seasoned Christian knows about firsthand.
And I hope that one of the effects of this message is that you would all be enabled to follow the whole pattern all the way through to its exciting conclusion.
First, the king is in the pits (Psalm 40:2).
What is this experience?
What are we supposed to feel with the king when we read that it is like being caught in a desolate pit and in miry clay?
When you consider that the usual meaning of pit is a well or a cistern, the image you get is striking.
It is as if David had fallen into a deep, dark well and plunged not into a clean, placid pool but into a roaring storm - only all dark and underground.
It is good that we don't know what the experience was.
It makes it easier to see ourselves in the pits with the king.
Anything that causes a sense of helplessness and desperation and threatens to ruin life or take it away - that is the king's pit.
Now the king's cry: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry" (Psalm 40:1).
One of the reasons God loved David so much was because he cried so much.
Psalm 6:6: "I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping."
Psalm 56:8: "Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?"
Indeed they are, because "blessed are those who mourn" (Matthew 5:4).
"When will God come?
At the right time.
That is all we can know. And that is enough."
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
'John Piper'
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God:
Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy
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