Scripture not only lays before us the wonderful promise of eternity, but it also understands the deepest issues we experience before we get there. In the narrative of God’s Word we find an eloquent and practical wisdom that speaks directly to these pressing issues.
So we need constantly to carry two commitments with us wherever we go. First, we need to commit to be persistent and teachable students of God’s Word. We were never designed to figure out life on our own. Only as we submit to the wisdom of the Wonderful Counselor will we escape the hold of our own foolishness. Second, we need to be committed to a habit of ongoing self-examination. You and I need to get used to standing before the mirror of the Word of God, so that we can see ourselves as we really are. Healthy Christianity is found at the intersection of accurate self-knowledge and the true knowledge of God.
What about you? Perhaps you are reading this book because you have lost your way. Or maybe you’re reading it because you are in a relationship with, or minister to, someone who is in the throes of some kind of midlife struggle. Or maybe you are simply interested in how the Gospel practically applies to the daily issues of human life. Whatever your reason for picking up this book, I invite you to examine your own heart, so that you too, will not lose your way.
What keeps you going?
What makes your life worthwhile?
What dreams have tended to capture your heart?
Right now, how are you making sense of your life?
What are you convinced you cannot live without?
Where do you seek to find identity?
Why do you call one day good and another bad?
What, in life, do you crave most?
Be honest—Why do you really do the things you do?
As you make choices and decisions, what are you hoping to get out of them?
May God expose our hearts, so that in really seeing ourselves, we may hunger all the more deeply for him!
Paul David Tripp
From Chapter 1 of Lost in the Middle.