Dealing with Discouragement

Discouragement.  Let’s be honest.  It happens to all of us- the courageous, the strongest, the faithful.  It happens. ​

Peter felt it after not living up to his own expectations and “wept bitterly.”
Job felt it when his friends dumped pity, guilt, and shame on him in the worst time of his life. Elijah felt it after one of the biggest highs in his ministry, he was so discouraged and hopeless that he even asked God to kill him.

As I studied the word “discouragement”  I found that one of the Latin meanings for “dis” is “a reversing force.”  That is so true. It comes in to take the life out of us in a moment.

The question is now what do we do with it?    
Jeremiah tells us this in Lamentations 3:21-24 after he has poured out his discouragement to the Lord.
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,  “therefore I will hope in him.”

What do we do? 

We remind ourselves of the goodness of God.  We encourage ourselves just as Jeremiah did, just as David did and many others. We renew our minds with His faithfulness by remembering how He has come through for us in the past when things were dark.

Psalm 42:11 says, “Why so cast down oh my soul and why are you in turmoil within me?” Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Sometimes we try to hope but have been in the situation or it’s so dark that we need someone to help walk us into hope, to hold up our hands and to lead us through some practical steps to restoring our hope.
We are here to walk you through.

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