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Showing posts with label Encouragemnt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Encouragemnt. Show all posts

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Dealing with Feeling Discouraged

   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