It's that uh feeling you get when you step on the scale after you feel like you've been putting some
time in working out eating right you expect the number to be one thing and it's not it's
that feeling you get when you've been interested romantically interested in somebody for a little
while and you've worked at it a little bit and then you're told you're such a great friend
it's that feeling you get when you've worked really hard at a job and you never seem to
get a raise or you make another meal and the kids don't say thanks it's the feeling you get
when you study for the test and you don't get the grade where you work hard every practice but you
don't get the playing time you apply to another college and another college doesn't accept you
when the test results come back and you find out the cancer spread it's the feeling
when your spouse says I love you but I'm not in love with you it's walking out to the mailbox and
finding another shutoff notice in the in the mail the word is discouragement
it's defined as a feeling of losing hope of losing confidence of losing courage you get discouraged
you had hope now you're losing it you had courage and strength but now it's slipping away and you're
not sure how much longer you can keep going you're not sure you're not sure how much longer you can
keep hanging on unless something changes unless things go a different direction and you're
starting to feel defeated discouragement is not an object it's not something that you can point
to it's not something that has weight or has mass and yet it can hold you back and it can weigh you
down and for all of us at some point or another on a pretty regular basis actually
we are forced to deal with this challenge of overcoming the discouragements of life
that we have these ideas and expectations of what's going to happen or the way things are going
to look or their kind of relationship we're going to have and that's not what life ends up looking
like and we just we're just discouraged you're getting over one storm and another storm comes
you're dealing with one thing with one kid and another thing with another kid comes you start
to finally figure it out in this part of your marriage and then this part of your marriage
starts to be a struggle at work you you feel like you're taking a few steps forward and then
you find out you've taken a few steps back it's just one thing after another there's just
one storm you start to get it cleaned up another storm comes and and you start over time to feel
discouraged and that's how discouragement works the longer you carry it the heavier it feels
and you just reach a point where you think I just don't know that I can keep doing it
and the days turn into years and it just it starts to feel feel like a little bit too much
and that's where discouragement starts to set in is when not yet starts to feel like not ever
it's the waiting that is the hard work of fighting discouragement
uh not we're just not good at waiting right no one likes no one chooses waiting nobody does that
it's in the waiting that is difficult but it's in the waiting that God is accomplishing
his purpose waiting is part of the process what God is doing in you on the journey is as
important and is necessary to the destination and so if you take a minute or two and you
look around God's waiting room you'll see people in there been waiting for a while
discouragement just comes but when you are in God's waiting room remember Joseph remember
the God is with you remember that it will work out for his good purpose in your life in some way
and and don't give up Joseph overcomes discouragement by taking the focus off himself
and putting his trust in God and God was with him when you feel rejected abandoned when you
feel alone when you feel discouraged good thing to say to yourself is the Lord is with me the Lord is
with me it's probably something you need to say to yourself again and again throughout your story
and you got to believe it you got to claim that truth and the bible tells us that if we are
followers of Jesus that not only is God with us that God is in us that that's our hope and that
hope won't disappoint us and if we put our hope in our situations and our hope and our circumstances
and our hope and things going just the right way we're gonna feel discouraged but our hope is
in the Lord and that the Lord is with us and so we remind ourselves of that again and again and again
and again because when we forget that God is with us it's game set match the enemy can overwhelm us
easily if we don't keep God in our minds here's what happens when you keep your mind on God
and you you set him before you in your life and it's a choice that we can all make at any given
point in time the first is instant encouragement when you set your mind on God it gives you instant
encouragement and a new perspective you see a big God and a little devil in everything God gets
bigger and problems get littler the second thing that happens is it feeds our faith and starves
our worries and fear when your mind is on God when you're praying when you're worshiping when you're
reading your bible when you're meditating on God and you're just aware of God's presence around you
it feeds your faith and your fears just begin to starve however when you don't have your mind
on God and you're thinking about the mountains and thinking about the giants and thinking about
the problems and you're overwhelmed with your circumstances it starves your faith and it feeds
your fears literally our mindset is everything when God is with us it's always a good day
this is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it why because my God is with me
and he's bigger than my mountains bigger than my giants bigger than my problems bigger than
all my enemies and even though I've got problems it's going to be a good day because God's with me
that God is with you and you have an enemy who is trying to tell you the opposite that God has
forgotten you God has abandoned you that this isn't part of God's plan that you've missed it
that the dreams weren't real you've got an enemy who's constantly trying to to sell you that lie
and so you've got to tell yourself again and again and again that the that the Lord is with me
I can't I don't see it right now I don't feel it right now God is with me I feel forgotten about
I feel rejected God is with me when I call out to him or when I ignore him he's still with me
when I'm confident when I'm afraid God is with me when I'm broken when I'm whole God is with me
when you're discouraged put your eyes on the Lord put your eyes on the Lord see when we take our
eyes off of the Lord we will get discouraged because there's going to be times when you're
misunderstood misrepresented unappreciated people may impugn your motives and even say things about
you that are not true so what do you do give up well if you want to do what the devil wants you
to do by all means give up the two the devil's two favorite words are give up and some of you
have been thinking about giving up today some of you are thinking about giving up on that marriage
giving up in that ministry some of you even thought about giving up on your Christian faith
because you've been disappointed by things that have come your way but what I want to say to you
is don't give up get up and keep your focus on Jesus Christ and you'll get through this
I believe that the two greatest ways that the devil assaults a Christian is to try to make them
afraid and try to get them to be discouraged who do you think is doing you think God's doing that
God's not giving us a spirit of fear has he God's not given us a spirit of discouragement God is not
the discourager he is the encourager he puts courage back into us God is with you
God is with you when you wake up in the middle of the night afraid God is with you at all times
people are ready to give up and it is true today that discouragement is a handle the devil use
uses on a number of tools the devil is a wiley foe
and he knows that he can neutralize our joy and our effectiveness as Christians by discouraging us
and the devil knows that he's got the battle pretty much won if he can discourage us if he
can get us down-hearted you've got to believe that Jesus is bigger than the devil and bigger
than your sins and he can give you victory if you've got God on your side exactly who
is it that you're afraid of isn't God bigger than everyone so if the devil is
constantly trying to discourage us greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world
Hebrews 13 verse 5 for he has said I will never leave you or forsake you God has a thousand
answers to your problem when you can't think of one sometimes you go through the deepest valleys
and you don't realize that God is taking you to a mountaintop you just gotta get through the valley
discouragement comes to everyone especially those who love God with all your heart soul mind and
strength you will have to fight this battle if you're not fighting it today you will it
at some point and or various points in your life have to go through this discouragement can be
debilitating it can leave you standing still can leave you in a place of doubting God
and ultimately that's what the enemy of your soul would like to happen in your situation
you get so despondent you begin to doubt the faithfulness of God and even the existence of God
that's how deep it can go that's how far the enemy wants to go right to the core of
your trust in God and take it from you and he's got a weapon it's called discouragement
it's worked very well he hasn't had to refine it all these years it works so powerfully it
works so well the devil wants to use your mouth as a microphone to discourage other not only
does he want to discourage you he wants you to spread the joy and he wants you to discourage
other people words are nuclear and just a few words can discourage us can it you can give a
bad report or you can give a good report and we all have a decision to make is this going to be
the devil's microphone to spread discouragement or this is going to be God's microphone to spread
encouragement I've made up my mind this is God's microphone to encourage other people I'm not going
to let my mouth overwhelm and discourage other people because it's a choice we all have to make
you know discouragement can be quite debilitating it can cause you to give up trying
you can give up hoping you can give up caring when you get discouraged when you get discouraged you
can give up believing we all know that times in life you come to a point where you just go I'm so
burdened down I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know what to think what to believe what to care about
that's discouragement David felt this in Psalm 42 verse 5 David says why am I so discouraged
why am I sad and then he answers his own question I will put my hope in God
anytime you feel discouraged you need to change your thoughts you need to change your focus you
need to change your mind if you look at the world you'll be distressed if you look within
you'll be depressed but if you look at Christ you'll be at rest it all depends on what you've
got your eyes on let us fix our eyes on Jesus let us not get tired of doing what is right
for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give
up that is a promise of God to you disappointments are inevitable they're going to happen unavoidable
and inescapable we're all going to be disappointed by people circumstances and things in life
discouragement is a choice I can either settle into that disappointment and become discouraged
down in the mouth or I can look at it square on the face acknowledge that it's there and
do something about it in a way that protects us from becoming discouraged now let me just say this
I'm not saying to you that you'll always be able to face everything and never have
any moments of discouragement what I'm saying is this they should be just that
moments of discouragement if you know who you are as a child of God and you understand who God is
and his love for you his commitment to you his willingness to help you in every single possible
way then you can understand what it means to suffer disappointments but at the same time
not experience discouragement except momentarily as you face the disappointment and respond in the
wise fashion and so you become discouraged you try hard you don't seem to be getting anywhere
you try a little harder and somebody's critical I mean they're demanding this and demanding that and
you become discouraged you think you know what's the use of trying nobody's going to understand
nobody's going to help me nobody cares and you fall into that horrible rut of being discouraged
and believing that somehow you're just trapped you're hooked that's the way life is you've been
dealt a dirty hand and there's nothing you can do about it that is not God listen to me
God doesn't deal dirty hands he is a loving father who cares for you wants the best for you desires
the best for you has provided the best for you if you've made wrong decisions God will forgive you
no matter what's going on God knows how to get you out of the rut and the grave of discouragement set
you on a higher plane on a higher level but you must be willing to deal with the disappointment
unresolved disappointments discouragement heartache pain and we multiply our suffering
we don't have to be discouraged because the bottoms dropped out
you can't get so low that almighty God can't pick you up lift you up and take you out
and send you on a different way I think about people that I've known through the years who've
been at rock bottom and just a little below that it looked like they didn't have a chance in life
let a few years go by and they're on top why because they refused to give up they refused
to live in the pits of discouragement they chose to make a decision they chose to step out they
chose to believe God they chose to take a step they chose not to be what they could have been
had they simply sulked and soaked in their own pity party because things were not good for them
discouragement can come when we fail to realize that there is a divine purpose
even when we're going through the darkest moments of our lives for those that are discouraged today
you don't have to live there let God speak to your heart let faith arise in your heart again
there is a reason there is a purpose there is a season we all have to pass through it but thanks
be to God we do pass through it thanks be to God his ways are made known to us and through us
thanks be to God we will live on the victory side praise God praise God praise God