Bible, Buddies, Battles
T. Ray (Brown ‘89, Football) shared some incredible insights about how to effectively and regularly defeat disappointment and how to turn away from the ‘god of my expectations.’ The solution is profound, powerful, and simple: run to God with close friends.
T. Ray is no rookie when it comes to battling loss and suffering—constant injuries throughout his football career, then later in life fought meningitis, heart attack, cancer. Yet he’s come through it by holding fast to Christ and with the support of close friends—one of which he made through his involvement with AIA at Brown (shoutout to Pat!).
How do you endure and defeat loss and disappointment? Run to God. How do you run to God? Use one of the primary means God has provided—the Bible. Study it. Memorize it.
Like Jesus, use it a weapon to fight off trials of life and the temptations to run to worldly things for temporary relief, rather than running to God for deep joy and satisfaction.
You’ve got to have some go-to verses when the brokenness of this world comes at you, often unexpectedly. Here are some you could use:
Feeling anxious? Memorize and pray Philippians 4:6
Feeling fearful? Memorize and pray Isaiah 12:2
Feeling stressed? Memorize and pray Isaiah 41:10
Feeling tired? Memorize and pray Matthew 11:28
Feeling confused? Memorize and pray Philippians 1:19-21
Feeling depressed? Memorize and pray Psalm 3
Feeling ashamed? Memorize and pray Romans 5:1-5
Feeling lost? Memorize and pray Proverbs 3:5-6
Feeling tempted? Memorize and pray Matthew 26:41
T. Ray believes in the power of God’s Word that he helped create an awesome app to help people use Scripture in any circumstance: The LifeTrainer App (Apple, Google Play). Download it now and take your spiritual game to the next level.
And we need good, close, trusted friends to do spiritual battle with us, to laugh and cry with, to be open and honest with, to pray with and study the Bible with…friends that are with you and for you no matter how bad things get, no matter how ugly your own sin is, these friends are the real deal. “…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24)
Lastly, T. Ray reminded us that the goal of disappointment is ultimately to bring us closer to God. Don’t let sin, Satain, or society get in your head that you’re not good enough or that there’s no hope.
When life gets hard, let ‘Providence’ guide you to the God of all comfort (2nd Corinthians 1:3-7), that we may not grieve as others do who have no hope (1st Thessalonians 4:13), for it is in God we hope—In Deo Speramus.
