“I’m having trouble finding joy, mainly because I just feellike my prayers haven’t been answered. I pray to be a better Christian, but myintrospection is getting worse. I start to be afraid that maybe there is not aGod answering my prayers, and all my joy disappears. I’ve read How toMaintain Joy and the article on introspection in How to Be Free fromBitterness, but I still feel empty. I am praying for help, but I still feellike I am going downhill. I just want my joy to return.”

Dear Friend,

Reading something is not the same as applying it. If youhave read the article on introspection, you know from experience and from thearticle that introspection is accusatory and a downer. The devil is theaccuser. The Holy Spirit is the convicter. You are asking for what you aregetting when you introspect. It is not a godly practice. When you are temptedto introspect, turn from it like any other temptation. Come into God’s presenceas Isaiah did in chapter 6.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated ona throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Abovehim were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces,with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they werecalling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earthis full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts andthresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘Iam ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of uncleanlips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’ Then one of theseraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongsfrom the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touchedyour lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard thevoice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And Isaid, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” (Isaiah 6:1-8).

Here is the sequence: 1) the Presence, 2) conviction of sin(not accusation), 3) confession of sin, 4) forgiveness of sin, 5) ready to go.

All of these happened in quick succession. If Isaiah hadbeen introspecting, he would never have been ready to go.

Here is an exercise.

1.    Read Ephesians 1 and 2.

2.    Write down in order everything the believer hasin Christ.

3.    Ask yourself the question, “True or false?”

4.    Thank God for each of these truths thatyou have and are in Christ.

5.    Keep on thanking God.

6.    Pay no attention to your feelings. Bad feelingsare the result of believing the liar, Satan. Good feelings are the resultof believing God. Thank God!

In the Lord Jesus Christ,

Jim Wilson

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships