Discouragement is one of the most crippling enemies we face in life. Not one of us is safe from it. It springs up in the most unlikely places at the most unexpected times and knocks us flat on our backs. It beats us down, robs us of joy and confidence, and leaves us bruised and hurting. The walking wounded are all around us – people who are battered and scarred, their hopes and dreams dashed to pieces on the cruel rocks of discouragement.
Unfortunately, the same condition exists for many of us in the Church. Whenever we begin walking in the Spirit and seeking the way of the Lord, whether as a body of believers or as individuals, we become targets of Satan’s special attention. The enemy knows that if he can discourage us to the point of giving up, he will have won a victory almost as great as if we had never been saved. When the rest of the world looks at Christians and sees us stumbling along in defeat, fear, strife, intimidations, and self-consciousness, what in us would they want? They would say, “Why, they are no different from us.”
Releasing life into the Body of the Christ and the world involves learning to overcome discouragement. That means understanding where it comes from and knowing how to deal with it.
Three Sources of Discouragement
One major source of discouragement is outward circum-stances. When things get tough and negative situations grab our attention, if we’re not careful, we’ll begin to dwell on them and be consumed by them. When all hell is breaking loose and it seems there is no way out, that’s when discou-ragement comes roaring in.
A classic example is of the nation of Israel soon after the exodus. Many of those folks were walking, breathing bags of discouragement. They could not take their eyes off their lousy circumstances: wilderness, scarcity of food, lack of water, and the daily hardships of nomadic life. They quickly and repeatedly forgot the mercies and power and deliverance of God on their behalf. There they were at the Red Sea, with the water before them, the Egyptians behind them, and no-where to go. They griped and complained to Moses, begin-ning a pattern that repeated itself time and again despite God’s deliverance and continual provision for their needs.
At the very border of Canaan not long after the parting of the sea, a final act of rebellion deprived that generation of the opportunity to enter and occupy the land God had promised. He had spoken His word. All they had to do was go in and possess what was already theirs. Twelve chosen men went in to check things out. They literally saw the promise and touched it, but 10 of them had no room in their hearts to really believe. Based on outward circumstances, they returned with a bad report that infected the faith of the whole community: “Too many powerful people…too many walled cities…to many giants…too strong for us…they’ll eat us alive…we’ll be killed, our wives and children captured… we see ourselves as grasshoppers…we are not able.” Only two returned with reports of faith, and almost got murdered because of it. As result, the Israelites wandered around out-side the land for 40 years, all because discouragement over their outward circumstances overwhelmed their faith and confidence in God.
Outward circumstances can be very deceptive. In Second Kings chapter 6, a foreign army under the king of Aram surrounded the city of Dothan in order to capture the prophet Elisha. When Elisha’s servant saw the massive forces, he was frightened. The situation looked very bad. Elsiha saw beyond the circumstances. He knew that God was on his side, protecting them. He said to his servant, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16b). Elisha prayed, and the servant’s eyes were opened to see the angelic hosts that had been there all along surrounding and pro-tecting them. When we focus on outward circumstances, we cannot see the resources that God has made available to us. Seeing things as they really are, through spiritual eyes, puts temporal circumstances in proper perspective.
Discouragement over circumstances depends on your perspective. It can be overcome through praise and worship. Acts 16:12–40 tells of Paul and Silas in Philippi. They had been preaching and ministering for several weeks, dogged at every step by a young slave girl who was possessed by a demonic spirit of divination. They delivered her from that, depriving her owners of the income they received from her ‘gift.’ This landed Paul and Silas in prison, flat on their backs with their feet in the stocks and rats running around every-where. In the middle of the night they were praising God and singing when an earthquake shook the place, and the chains of every prisoner there came loose. Before the night was over, the jailer and his entire household had been brought to Christ. Praise and worship will not always lead to such a miraculous deliverance from bad circumstances, but praise and worship will put these circumstances in a new light, enabling us to view them from God’s perspective.
A second source of discouragement is things we hear that are not from God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing the Word of God. In a similar way fear comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing that which is not from God. Jesus said in Mark 4:24, “Consider carefully what you hear…With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more.” So, the more we expose ourselves to the things of God, hearing His Word and listening to His Spirit, the more we will understand, the more we will be encouraged, and the more we will be built up in strength and faith.
On the other hand, if we fill our minds with ungodly attitudes, worldly philosophies, negativism, and other things contrary to the Word of God, then that is what will grow strong in us, and fear and discouragement are sure to follow. Either we listen to and abide by God’s Word, growing strong in faith; or we hear and heed the lies, growing strong in fear.
The third source of discouragement is the foolish and ignorant words that come out of our mouths – those falsely humble or self-defeating things that are contrary to God’s desires for us. Such things as ‘I’ll never succeed,’ or ‘I’m really not worth much.’ Or ‘God could never use me,’ or ‘This one is too big for Him to handle,’ or ‘This is too small for God to be bothered with,’ and the like, are sure-fire discouragement builders. We need to heed Proverbs 18:21: ‘The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.’
So looking at the wrong things, listening to the wrong things, and saying the wrong things open the door for discouragement to rush in and overwhelm us. If we set our hearts and minds on things above rather than on earthly things (see Col. 3:1-2), we can draw on the inexhaustible resources of God to keep discouragement at bay.
Looking at the wrong things, listening to the wrong things, and saying the
wrong things open the door for discouragement to rush in and overwhielm us.
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Mary Audrey has been pastor of “Equipping Ministries and Women in Ministry” at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship since 1994. She is an exhorter and teacher. |
