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I. Disappointment

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Paul arrived at Troas and expected Titus to meet him. Paul probably played the scene over in his mind. He wanted an answer. Paul wanted closure to the situation. Paul chose the time, place, person, and way of closure but it wasn't God's plan. When closure is your focus, you will hit a wall resulting in your be unavailable to be used by God.

Paul was so disappointed that Titus didn't meet him in Troas that he walked away from God's open door of service.

II. Discouragement

II Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

When Paul walked away from God's door of service he found no rest for his spirit. What Paul found instead was mental un-rest, bodily fatigue, fear, folly and frustration.

III. Dis-function

II Corinthians 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

Paul is referring back to his side trip from Troas to Macedonia in this passage. Fightings without indicates that life had become a continual conflict. Rather like walking around with a chip on your shoulder just waiting for someone to knock it off.

Fears within indicate imaginary battles and paranoid delusions. Reality had become un-recognizable.

IV. Depression

Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

Our hurts usually result in explosions of indignation, when the fuel of our anger is consumed implosion occurs. Implosion puts a person into ‘shut down’ mode. Where we crawl into a dark spot and close the lid.

(Are you following the progress in this outline? Unless there is a sudden trauma, no one just wakes up depressed one morning. Disappointment~Discouragement~Dis-function~Depression is the natural progression but we can get off that train anywhere along the line.)

Depression gives up. Brokeness gives in

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