On Discouragement
I read two, but only needed to read one, books by Frank Peretti. One was plenty. I mean this is a good sense.
In his book, This Present Darkness, he gave a great picture of demonic oppression. He personalized how certain demons plague the people of God. The idea was clear in the first book. I do not suppose that he was all right, but he certainly was not all wrong.
Discouragement is a demon. It sits on your shoulder. It bores into your brain. It steals your energy. It hurts your heart.
What looks like progress in the congregation comes in fits and starts. Opportunities exceed human and financial resources. Members continually compare our work with some other congregation. The competition for people’s time increases. The books I read to help my ministry often conflict with each other and even more so with what we are doing. Days of befuddlement persist even into my fourth decade of ministry. Add this in: the couples I counsel don’t automatically have improved marriages, the Catechism students aren’t keenly interested in the importance of our topics, there are adults in the congregation who behave like children, and sermons I thought would engage end up (seemingly) to bore. And to top it all off, I watch, read or listen to too much news.
Depressed. No. Not at all.
But discouraged.
Expect it. That’s life. Here and there. Not always. But always near.
As a follower of Jesus expect there to be times when one of Satan’s demons strikes at the core of your courage. Just when you need energy, conviction, and joy to move forward on something, you will meet discouragement.
Meet it. But do not give into it. Understand it to be what it is: a stinking gift from the bowels of hell. Return it to the hellish fiend who sent it… unopened. Mark it: return to sender.
Dwelling in discouragement is one of the more disastrous things a Christian can do. It can develop into substance abuse, family disruption, binge spending and general grouchy Christianity.
The root meaning of discouragement is “without heart.” Cor is the Latin word for heart. Discouragement means we lose our heart. When our hearts are steadfast on the heart of Jesus, we will be able to move from discouragement to being heartened! His heart serves to steady ours.
I Samuel 7:12-14 talks about an “Ebenezer Stone.” (Check it out.) It is a stone of remembrance designed to forestall discouragement.
Because you can anticipate times of discouragement to come, place now certain “Ebenezer Stones” in your mind and your life. I turn to these two passages to shore up my courage:
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous. Joshua 1:5-6
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19 (We actually made this into an Ebenezer Stone and placed it on our front porch.)
Discouraged?
Yes, now and then. But never for long! Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world!