Not at the top of your game?  (DISCOURAGEMENT)

Greetings.

We have talked recently of contentment, belonging and participating in a growing community, but sometimes, in spite of our effort and everything we can do ourselves, life is hard, and we fight the inevitable … discouragement.

In fact, no matter how strong we think ourselves to be, I am convinced that it is one way the devil seeks to get us off balance, tear us down, and keep us from joy-filled living.  Paul gives us insight into his discouragement—both explanation and hope.  Take a look:

 ®We are hard pressed on every side - Paul faced harsh judgments and undermining of his credibility, even from fellow believers . . .but, he says, ‘we are not crushed’.¹  Paul knew his calling and he knew who called him; he knew that God was in control.

How about you?  Do you feel that you are ‘getting it’ from every side?  Family, work, broken relationships, health, physical pain . . . One of the major causes of discouragement is also fatigue.  When we get physically and/or emotionally exhausted, a door opens to depression and even illness.  First, there is a sense of being overwhelmed, and right then, we need to act . . . fight!

 ®perplexed -  Paul was perplexed by the self-appointed religious critics who persisted in tearing him down … why did they carry on so?

‘And you?  ‘Things not going like you had planned?  ‘Things not turning out like you expected, like you had a right to expect?  Failed expectations are so disappointing; they knock us off-center.  Like, when you thought about being a parent, you never thought YOUR child would be so very hard …  when you married all those years ago, you didn’t see you were marrying your father, and that things would be so difficult …  you did not think you would be 52 years old, and dusting off your interviewing suit, and hitting the pavement to find work  …

Yet, here you are.  Life was not supposed to be like this.

Do not despair… God is on the throne.  Nothing that assailed Paul caught God by surprise; nothing you or I face has caught him by surprise either, and nothing is too much for our Father. He is able.

®persecuted -  Paul was on a mission from God, and yet he found himself hungry and homeless.  He was stoned, put on trial, shackled and imprisoned—why?  For the same mission!   He was shipwrecked and left for dead – but he trusted what God said, ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.’²  You and I must stand on the same promise – “never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

 Paul knew he was not abandoned – “The Lord your God is with you; he is mighty to save.”³

®struck down – Paul always got back up . . . he never lost sight of his goal.  Some of us have been struck down by failure – failure to achieve, failure to execute, and perhaps worst of all, moral failure.  The question is, ‘did you get back up?’  Come on, people have reached out to give you a hand up, and you take it, but then you let your failure get the best of you again, and you are right back down on the floor!  How did you get there again?  Think about Peter walking on the water to Jesus.  As long as he kept his eyes on the Lord, he skipped from white cap to white cap—when he looked down, he sunk into the white caps—he was consumed.  Have you failed?  Stop looking down!  Get your eyes back on your Savior, and back on your target. 

Part of what may be going on with you is that you are consumed with yourself …get your eyes off you, and back where they belong.  My favorite battle scene is in 2 Chronicles 20 – are you in a battle?  Find 2 Chronicles 20 and read it; I guarantee you will not be sorry.  Better yet, here it is: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=2%20Chronicles%2020.1-30&version=NIV&interface=print 

Jehoshaphat says to God, ‘we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you, Lord.’  Rather than being destroyed, Jehoshaphat (and his people) experienced victory.  My friend, push on toward overcoming! Overcoming discouragement takes faith, and it takes great courage.

Christine