Days of Discouragement
Days of Discouragement
dəˈskərəjm(ə)nt/ a loss of confidence or enthusiasm; dispiritedness
Every human being will face some discouragement in this life. Because we live in a broken, messed up world, because we humans are weak, because there is sin in our world, we will all face discouragement. Preachers of the Word of God are no different.
Some seem to have the attitude that we should not be discouraged. You’ve heard it before, “Jesus was never discouraged,” “If we are committed to the Lord, we won’t get discouraged,” “Just spend more time in prayer and study,” “BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!”
My belief is that a theological case could be made that discouragement is a part of every life and it would be difficult to prove that Jesus was never discouraged. And, even if that could be proved, the last time I checked, as much as we want to be like Him, we are not Jesus.
Discouragement comes from many sources, in many different forms. At times it is subtle and creeps up on us before we realize it. At other times, it is like a raging storm that overcomes us quickly.
I wish there was an easy answer and that we could fix this quickly. I confess I don’t have the answers, but perhaps a few thoughts that might help us when we are dealing with days of discouragement.
(1) We learn from Scripture that some of the Lord’s greatest leaders dealt with discouragement. Spend some time with the sweet singer of Israel who seemed to struggle mightily with the demon of discouragement. “Listen to my words, Lord, Consider my sighing. Listen to the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. (Psalm 5:1-2) “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my help are the words of my groaning. My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:1-3)
Hear the heart of our brother, Paul, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)
Please don’t ever forget, if you are discouraged today, you are not alone.
(2) Rest in the comfort that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us.
(3) Lean into the lives of others. The more we time we can spend caring for others, praying with others, doing life with others, the less time we will have for discouragement.
(4) Pour out your heart to the Lord. This is not a trite attempt to say we should pray more. We’ve all heard that many times. This is a word of hope. Our Lord wants to hear from His people when our hearts are broken. He longs to lend His strong and mighty arm to rescue us. Jesus really does care for us. We can cast all our cares on Him. We can be brutally honest with Him and He will hear every word from our mouth as well as every unspoken word of our heart.
Even when the answer isn’t clear, we can thank Him for listening and we can praise Him for the good He showers upon us each day.
If you need to talk, please reach out to someone who will listen! Please don’t ever quit reaching out to our Lord.