Defining Discouragement

Content library Defining Discouragement
Share
Share

Southeast Christian ChurchSoutheast Christian Church

Mar 22, 2021

It’s often hard to admit when we are discouraged because it feels like defeat. If we feel discouraged but don’t admit it, we believe that maybe we can get out of it sooner. If we admit it, it feels like discouragement is here to stay.

Discouragement doesn’t happen overnight. One struggle typically doesn’t bring us to a place of discouragement. We can usually bounce back once or twice, but when the struggle is sustained and there is no end in sight, discouragement sets in. When we feel alone and there’s no one to bring us courage, discouragement grows.

To be discouraged is to lose your courage. When you lose your courage, you don’t have what it takes to face even the smallest tasks in your day. What used to be joyful feels like a burden. Discouragement often leads us toward apathy and away from God as we slip further into the darkness of our circumstances. It becomes a cloud that follows us wherever we go and darkens the joy around us. We are in desperate need of courage to pull us back into the light, and this courage cannot come from ourselves. We need God, the source of courage, to bring us back into his presence so that we may have the strength to endure.

Reflection/Discussion Questions: Are you or anyone close to you currently in a season of discouragement? What has that been like?

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Lifestyle

Purpose

Spiritual Disciplines

Comments

To leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

0

Embrace the Wait

Waiting is difficult for even for people gifted with patience. It’s typically in our seasons of waiting that we hit a point where it seems logical that God would finally remove us from the wait, but that tends to be exactly when he wants to mold us in the waiting. God has a way of making us wait long enough for us to drop every earthly thing we are clinging to, ditch every wrong assumption about God, and stop relying on ourselves. God wants to use the waiting to deepen our faith so that we are ready to receive what is on the other side of the waiting. But waiting is hard work. Not everyone who waits can be shaped by God. If you choose not to embrace the waiting and to stop pursuing Christ, then the waiting will cripple you. It’s only when we keep our eyes on Christ in the midst of the waiting that he will mold our hearts to look more like his. We have to trust that seasons of waiting are necessary for our own spiritual growth and the growth of God’s kingdom. After all, God is not wasteful. He doesn’t speak in vain, he does nothing by accident, and no plan of his is without purpose. He will never make us wait because he enjoys abusing his power. The waiting we endure will always be the exact amount of time needed to accomplish his work in and through us. Once we step foot into eternity with Jesus, we will probably laugh at the amount of time we spent waiting on God. We may even say, “I would’ve waited a lot longer if I had known this is what eternity had in store.” Reflection/Discussion Question: Why is waiting necessary to sharpen our faith?

0

Where is Your Confidence?

Instead of God pointing Joshua to his huge army or his own strength, God points Joshua to Himself. God reminds Joshua that he can have courage in Him. In fact, Joshua 1:9 starts with, “Have I not commanded you?” Doesn’t it seem a little harsh for God to command Joshua to be strong and courageous? Isn’t he allowed to be scared? God commands Joshua to be strong and courageous because he knows that the command hinges on God’s own faithfulness. Joshua has no reason to be strong and courageous if he is putting his confidence in his own army or in what he can see and understand. But Joshua has every reason to be strong and courageous if he is putting his confidence in God who will “be with [him] wherever [he goes]” (Joshua 1:9e, NIV). God has proved over and over again that he is faithful, he can be trusted, he is good, he keeps his promises, nothing is impossible for him. What more does God have to do for us to put our full confidence in him? If we would take our eyes from our circumstances and look at who God is and what he is done, we would never move our gaze. God wants to give us the courage we need before we do what he commands us to do, but first we have to abandon everything we’ve been putting our confidence in outside of God. Abandon your confidence in your money, your time, your resources, your abilities, your plan, your spouse, your job—everything. The more we put our confidence in these things that fail, the more our discouragement will grow. Put your confidence in God and experience the courage he offers to give you the victory you need. Reflection/Discussion Question: What are you putting your confidence in to give you the courage you need?