I’m still reading a chapter every so often of Sproul’s ‘The Holiness of God’, which caught my interest, thinking it would be worthwhile reading after having looked at a number of the various attributes and Names of God in the ‘Abram/Abraham’ chapters of Genesis and will leave a comment on this book when I finish. However, over the last 10 days I entered a kind of ‘downer’, the cause of which I haven’t been able to pinpoint but I was feeling down, physically unwell and there were perceived strong barriers hindering me to pray. Old sins, dealt with on the finished work of Christ and His voluntary shedding of blood on the cross, kept coming to mind and my battle-plan over previous months aided greatly by Biblical truths contained within C. J. Mahaney’s ‘The Cross-Centred Life’ didn’t seem to work but instead I felt overwhelmed by guilt, shame and unworthiness over these past days.

This situation led me to pick up Piper’s ‘When the Darkness Will Not Life – Doing What We Can While We Wait for God – and Joy’, for which I personally can exhort you to buy and share. The book is aimed at believers going through a darkness in their lives, whether that be a short-term sadness, feeling of guilt etc. to long-term ‘depression’ and again I would strongly encourage anyone who knows of such a believer or if you yourself reading this is going through such an experience along the narrow way to pick this short book up and read whatever you can.

Piper quotes widely in this encouraging book – it is dedicated to the memory of John Owen, and much like ALL of Piper’s books it is saturated in Bible. Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones are all quoted from and a situation between John Newtown and William Cowper is also told, one which we all can learn from. A believer who perceives themselves going through a dark spell may not want to pick up a lengthy essay by a puritan or scholar, which could in itself be of great benefit and by the grace of God speak directly into their situation – but one of the things that could attract such a believer to picking up this particular book is its length – it is 79 pages – one-and-a-half line spacing and can be read in several hours. It’s hard to summarise this book for it is chock full of admonitions to fight on, to not get down and seclude yourself away feeling sorry for yourself but to wise up, get out of your bed, out of your front door and confess your sin to believers you know, mourn it, grieve over it, go to fellowship, praise God through song for His grace, evangelise, read missionary reports…I’ll leave you with the chapter and sub-headings of the book –

Introduction: Faith Alone and the Fight for Joy
To Help Those for Whom Joy Stays Out of Reach
The foundation of Gutsy Guilt
The Great Work of Christ Outside of Us
Confusing Justification and Sanctification Will Kill Joy
John Bunyan Sees His Righteousness in Heaven
Start with Despair in Yourself

The Darkness of Melancholy
The Physical Side of Spiritual Darkness
The Place of Medication in the Fight for Joy

Waiting in Darkness, We Are Not Lost And Not Alone
How Long, O Lord, How Long!
The Ground of Our Assurance When We Cannot See Our Faith
When A Child of God is Persuaded that He is Not

Fold Not The Arms Of Action
What Matters is Your Duty, Not Your Joy?
Duty Includes the Duty of Joy
Will You Be a Hypocrite if You Obey Without Joy?
Thanksgiving With the Mouth Stirs Up Thankfulness in the Heart

Does Unconfessed Sin Clog Our Joy?
Confessing to God and to Man is Sweet Freedom
Give the Devil His Due, But No More
The Devil Cannot Abide with the Light of Cherished Truth

The Darkness That Feeds On Self-Absorption
How Bill Leslie Became a Watered Garden and a Spring
What My Eighty-Five Year Old Father Said Was Missing
The Aim is that Our Words Would Be the Overflow of Joy in Christ
Is the Cause You Live for Large Enough for Your Christ-Exalting Heart

Loving Those Who Cannot See The Light
The Amazing Grace of John Newtown’s Care for Cowper
There is No Wasted Work in Loving Those without Light