Billy
Graham is quoted as saying, "The Christian life is not a constant high. I
have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with
tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'" I am
very grateful for the candor of this man whom God has worked through to share
the gospel with hundreds of millions of people. I can certainly
relate. Can you?
Discouragement means to lose courage, to lose confidence or to lose
"heart". The mental picture I get is that our confidence in
Christ and His purposes for our lives is wrestled away from us.
When I lost my ability to smell several years ago, developed
putrid, moment by moment, "phantom smells", and couldn't taste food,
I struggled. I drifted far too long in the fog of discouragement.
Eventually, God led me to blue skies as I learned to be content in Christ
without the pleasure of smell and taste. Eventually, He also gave me a
solution eliminating most of the phantom smells.
Discouraging
thoughts are tempting thoughts. Agreeing with them quickly disheartens us
leaving us feeling like an emotional glob of yuck and muck.
One of my staff recently shared that they experienced several weeks of
discouragement over a family situation that was growing worse by the
week. As they sought the Lord about why they felt so discouraged, He
showed them that they were agreeing with tempting thoughts of self-blame,
self-condemnation and spiritual passivity. Once they understood this,
they claimed their "already won" victory in Christ and returned to
experiencing Jesus as their joy.
We can be discouraged by many things when we agree with our
enemy's interpretation of them. Here are some examples: a negative
comment someone made about us; an unexpected financial need; a child's
rebellion; conflict; unresolved loneliness; habitual sin; and more.
What is God's way out of discouragement? Simply put, it is to
start agreeing with God based on the Gospel instead of our enemy.
First and foremost, because Jesus is our Life (Colossians 3:4), no other person
or situation is. He lives in us. He is our first love. He is
our ultimate source of love. He is our confidence. He is our
provision. He rules this world with sovereignty. He loves us.
We can do all the things God has given us to do through Christ living through
us. Based on these truths, we can pray a prayer telling Him we trust Him,
even when we don't feel like trusting Him.
It's an issue of focus. For example, I run trails for
fitness. Sometimes when I run, I have pains my wife describes as
"niggles". They are temporary and usually go away as the run
continues. When I first started running, I would focus on these little
pains wondering if I had hurt myself. It seemed the more I focused on the
pain, the more intense it felt. When my wife, an experienced trail
runner, explained that it was a "niggle", I learned to disregard it,
keep running and soon the pain disappears.
Discouragement is like that. As long as we focus on the
person or situation, the intensity of our discouragement increases.
However, when we seek the Lord about the source of our discouragement, hear His
answer and get refocused on Him as our truth, the discouragement is exchanged
for Jesus as our peace.
When you find yourself discouraged, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you
the reason why. It's usually not the situation but the lie(s) we believe
about it. Then, claim your already won victory in Christ over it and
confess to Him that He alone is your life, peace, joy, etc. You'll find
yourself "en"couraged. But if you get stuck, we would
love for you to contact us for a free counseling consultation whether live or
online. Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding
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