1. We lose heart when we make the weight of our sin greater than the glory of Christ’s righteousness.
2. We lose heart when we turn away from the Lord in fear, shame, selfishness, or laziness.
3. We lose heart when we stop beholding his glory.
4. We lose heart when we harden our hearts to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
5. We lose heart when we forget whom power comes from.
6. We lose heart when we are afflicted and believe our affliction will crush us.
7. We lose heart when we are unwilling to carry in our bodies the sufferings of Jesus, only desiring ease and comfort.
8. We lose heart when we stop believing and speaking in faith.
9. We lose heart when we resist grace and start grumbling.

Turning to the Lord in times of trial is evidence that you have not lost heart completely. Turning to Jesus and beholding his glory removes the veil of darkness. We are being transformed over the course of our lifetimes through the trials, toils and snares. The glory of God has shone in our hearts through Christ so we do not lose heart.

 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:16–17

The way I want to constantly edify you: you have been uniquely wired and uniquely gifted by God. You’ve been drawn to certain hobbies, drawn to certain habits, placed in certain neighborhoods and given certain positions so that you might reflect the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ in powerful ways to the world around you.
So that, my hope is: you wouldn’t be so bored in life but rather would enjoy the life you’ve been given as you see the eternal weight of it.

And so when you love creation rather than the Creator, you’re trying to get from creation what creation cannot give you, and so you’re going to hit a ceiling and grow frustrated in that ceiling and be forced to medicate. Some of us are going to medicate with drugs and alcohols. Some of us are going to medicate with sex. Some of us are going to medicate with lust. Most of us are going to medicate with trinkets and toys. There is an emotive response to new trinkets, new toys, new clothes, and my guess is new lovers. There’s an excitement, an energy, a joy, but if we can be straight, that emotive response fades and leaves us right where we are before the new trinket, before the new toy, before the new job, before the new clothes, before the new lover. And we’re now forced to go find another one, and maybe it needs to be bigger; maybe it needs to be more perverse; maybe it needs to be in order to get that same high. And so we end up living extremely foolish lives.

surrender

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/article-stories/justin-beatty/

“What I really realized was that it was the first time I had truly surrendered everything. There was no Jesus I give you all but…,” he said. “It was everything.”