When Trouble Comes: Phil Ryken’s Personal Testimony

September 2, 2016 by Philip Graham RykenCrossway Ministries

A Season of Terrible Discouragement

A year or two ago, I went through a season of deep spiritual discouragement; some would probably call it depression. I wanted to share about that experience and tell you some of the things that were helpful, and the ways God ministered to me in that season. I hope they are an encouragement to you. It’s an encouragement to me simply to give a testimony of God’s grace in my life.

There were a lot of reasons for the discouragement. One was a grief that a family member was enduring that brought me a lot of sadness. I also had some very significant additional challenges. I’m the President of Wheaton College; it is quite a challenging job with a lot of pressures and difficulties, which contributed to the discouragement. There were also some ministry conflicts, broken relationships, and people that were attacking me. Altogether, there were a lot of things that were deeply discouraging.

This discouragement was coming out in several different ways. There were times when it was very difficult to get to sleep at night, or when it was very difficult to get up and get going in the morning. There were mornings when I was overwhelmed with sadness the whole time I was preparing for the day. I lost quite a bit of weight. Overall, I had great difficulty in many areas.

Read the Article: https://www.crossway.org/articles/when-trouble-comes-phil-rykens-personal-testimony/