If we are to overcome discouragement, we need to apply Biblical principles to help us rise above this deadly disease.

1. Rest your body. Sleep is essential to good health and is a gift from God. (Ps 4:8) We need to be careful not to burn the candle at both ends and must try to adopt good sleep routines where posisble. Ps 23:2 reminds us that God makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us besides still waters. There are periods of rest required to restore our souls. Sabbath rest was a vital principle for the Israelites and remains critical to good physical, emotional and spiritual health.

2. Reorganise your life. 1 Cor 14:3 reminds us that God is a God of order, not chaos. We need to declutter our minds from the negative thoughts that so easily invade, taking captive every thought to Christ (2 Cor 10:5). God wants to transform us through the renewing of our mind (Rom 12:1-2) and we can only do this as we come to Christ, learning from Him (Matt 11:28-30).

3. Recall God’s help in the past. We so easily forget what God has done for us in the past and the miracles He has wrought on our behalf. We need to make our stones of remembrance (‘Ebenezers’, as 1 Sam 7:12 says) to remind us of God’s miraculous help in times past. As we focus on God’s faithfulness, faith is stirred in our hearts.

4. Resist discouragement. Sometimes we have to talk to ourselves in a positive way: ‘why are you downcast, O my soul?’ (Ps 42:5) James 4:7 reminds us to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil. We have to do what is right, no matter what we feel. Feelings, after all, don’t last. We need to continue to do what is right, being confident that we will still see God’s goodness in the land of the living. (Ps 27:13)

5. Refocus your life. We must shift our focus away from ourselves if we are to overcome discouragement. Prov 11:25 reminds us that those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. We are urged to be givers, not just takers, and need to set our hearts and our minds on things above. (Col 3:1-3) Keeping an eternal perspective is essential. (2 Cor 4:16-18). If we only focus on the now, with all its problems, discouragement will never loosen its grip, but if we view life’s trials and troubles from the perspective of eternity, they become easier to bear.

What does discouragement look like?

Discouragement can be seen in different ways, in our:

1. Motivation. Prov 17:22 reminds us that a downcast spirit dries up the bones; it has an effect on us physically. When we are discouraged, it is easy to lose the motivation to do anything – personal prayer, studying the Bible, and having fellowship all suffer as we lack the energy to do these things. Procrastination follows and we find we become apathetic and neglect our duties and responsibilities. We focus on the problems and our enthusiasm fades. We lose interest in life and find it hard to want to do anything.
2. Expectation. 1 Cor 2:9 reminds us that God has prepared great things for us, but when discouragement takes a hold, our expectations are low. We live within ever-decreasing boundaries, our lives retricted by our lack of faith as we do not believe God will ever change our situation. Hab 2:3 reminds us to wait for the vision to come to pass and Hab 3:17-18 reminds us that hoping in God and rejoicing in Him are choices we make by faith, even when there is no visible evidence that He is working.
3. Communication. When we are discouraged, we speak negatively. Jesus reminds us that our speech is an indication of what is happening in our hearts (Luke 6:45) and pessimism, negativity and despair are communicated through our speech. We become moody, irritable and despondent, which is why we are urged to guard our hearts, since all life springs from within. (Prov 4:23)
4. Resignation. The final aspect of discouragement is effectively when we give up. We believe change would require too much effort and we cannot see any hope that change will come. When we reach this level of discouragement, we are in a very dangerous position. Micah 7:8 reminds us that ‘though I have fallen, I will arise!’, but when we are discouraged, we do not believe this truth, being locked into the present viewpoint.

Yan Hadley spoke tonight on the ‘deadly disease of discouragement’. Discouragement is like a virus which may start out in small ways but which is very contagious and can easily lead to depression and despair. In Num 13:31-33, we see how the spies coming back from the promised land were discouraged, talking of giants, high walls and the difficulties of taking the land and how their discouragement infected the people of Israel. (Num 14:1-2) We are urged to encourage each other and build each other up (1 Thess 5:11) every day (Heb 3:13), and encouragement is definitely needed, for the enemy seeks to discourage us on a daily basis. We need to have a sensitive spirit, a selfless mind, a listening ear and an encouraging heart if we are to overcome discouragement.

There are many examples of people who were discouraged at times in the Bible (e.g. Moses, Nehemiah, David, Job, Timothy) and in order to overcome discouragement, we need to understand the causes and characteristices of discouragement as well as God’s cure for it.

The Causes of Discouragement

1. Fatigue. When we are physically tired, we are more prone to discouragement. Moses knew the burden of feeling overwhelmed and worn down (Num 11:14), and when we are weary and fatigued, we become more susceptible to discouragement.
2. A Wounded Spirit. When we feel the hurts and disappointments caused by other people and life’s circumstances, we can become discouraged. Moses faced the people wanting to stone him (Num14:2-4, 10) and people’s thoughtless words and unkindness can leave us open to discouragement.
3. Frustration. Nehemiah knew what it was to feel frustrated as there was rubble everywhere, hindering the rebuilding of the city walls. (Neh 4:10). Frustration leaves us tense and often discouraged. The pile of unfinished tasks which lie before us can make us feel like giving up.
4. Unanswered Prayer. When we pray and fast and seek God and do not see any answers or change or breakthrough, we can easily become discouraged. Prov 13:12 reminds us that hope deferred makes the heart sick. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were facing discouragement because of dashed hopes (Luke 24:21) and we can often feel very disappointed with God.
5. Failure. Failure always condemns, leaving us feeling that we have let ourselves, other people and God down. However, failure does not have to be fatal. David, Peter and John Mark are all examples of people who failed but who found God still used them. Failure doesn’t have to have the last word.
6. Fear. Fear so often cripples us and discourages us from doing good things. (Neh 4:11) We fear criticism from others, making a mistake and taking responsibility. Again, the Bible encourages us by showing us people who overcome fear (Gideon and Timothy, for example.)
7. Faulty Thinking. So often, we have distorted perceptions. Matt 6:22-23 reminds us that if the eye is sound, the body will be healthy; how we think affects so much. Elijah in 1 Kings 19:10 was so discouraged that he felt ready to die, but this was a result of faulty thinking (that he was the only prophet left serving God.) Thomas Jefferson once said that nothing can stop a man with a right mental attitude, and we need to take captive every thought and bring it to submission to Christ (2 Cor 10:5), allowing God to transform and renew our thinking. (Rom 12:1-2) The Israelites in the wilderness spoke of being better off in Egypt (Num 14:2-3) – a clear example of how fautly thinking can lead us astray.

Tucked away in the book of James is the verse ‘He gives us more grace.’ (James 4:6)

So often, we want to be in control of our lives, planning, organising and growing in independence. We start by faith, trusting in God’s grace, but like the Galatian church, we often carry on in our own strength, thinking we can manage quite adequately without God. Grace is reckless, unearned and dangerous; we feel immensely vulnerable when we live by grace, rather than by the conventional rules of society (‘you scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.’)

Grace, like manna, is not something we receive just the once and then can manage without it. The God of all grace, a God who gives us ‘grace upon grace’, ‘gifts of grace beyond our imagination’ (Jn 1:16) wants us to live in daily dependence on Him and then pass on the grace we receive to others.

So often, we are not gracious. We are irritable, nit-picking, focussing on the speck of dust in other people’s eyes without seeing the plank in our own. So often, we are bigoted, prejudiced, racist and just plain unkind to others, without ever seeing the incongruity in how we live compared to our Saviour. God wants us to be saturated in grace till it becomes our default reaction. Only then can we reflect God’s nature to a world which desperately needs grace. Grace-made people are not perfect. But they are people who know and rely on the love of God (1 Jn 4:16), rather than on their own resources. Grace-made people are works in progress, but they are people who live by faith and not by sight and who are learning to lean on God and not on their own understanding. (2 Cor 5:7, Prov 3:5) Grace-made people are those who are looking for opportunities to pass on blessing to others.

The way of grace is often difficult, but it’s a way of immense blessing and joy.

In our series ‘Battles & Blessings’, we looked today at some of the blessings mentioned by Paul in Ephesians 3. In that chapter, Paul talks about the ‘administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you’ (Eph 3:2), about becoming a servant of the gospel by the ‘gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power’ (Eph 3:7), about the ‘boundless riches of Christ’ (Eph 3:8), about the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10), about ‘the freedom and the confidence’ we have in approaching God (Eph 3:12) and about the sheer extravagance of God’s love (Eph 3:17-18). The theme of God’s lavish grace is very evident in al lhe writes, and in the Voice version, it says ‘I became a servant and preacher of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace as He exercised His amazing power over me. ⁸ I cannot think of anyone more unworthy to this cause than I, the least of the least of the saints. But here I am, a grace-made man, privileged to be an echo of His voice and a preacher to all the nations of the riches of the Anointed One, riches that no one ever imagined.’ (Eph 3:7-8, The Voice).

There’s nothing wrong with being self-made in the business world or working hard, but we have to understand the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, where we are saved not by our hard work and effort but by faith through grace. (Eph 2:8-9) God’s ways of doing things are completely different to our ways of doing things. (Is 55:8-9). He has chosen to save us through the message of the cross, which seems like foolishness to us. (1 Cor 1:23) He has chosen ‘the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Cor 1:27) He is interested not simply in this world but in shaping us to become like Him throughout eternity. Ultimately, independence is not the goal in a life of faith; instead, we are to grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus, learning always to lean and depend on God. (2 Pet 3:18, Prov 3:5-6)

Grace is scandalous and outrageous, because it doesn’t seem ‘fair’ to a world where tit-for-tat and quid-pro-quo rule. Jesus told parables about grace which offended those who listened: the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), where a son who treated his father with contempt is welcomed back with open arms and lavish gifts, much to the dismay of the dutiful older son, and the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matt 20:8-16), where those who work for only an hour or so are paid the same as those who have worked all day! Philip Yancey talks about ‘the atrocious mathematics of the gospel’ (‘What’s So Amazing About Grace?’, P 59) where it makes no sense of a shepherd to leave his ninety-nine sheep to search for one missing sheep or to pour out perfume worth a month’s wages on washing Jesus’s feet… but these examples show us something of God’s extravagant, lavish love.

To be grace-made means to revel in the grace we receive from God, but we are called also to pass this grace on. That will impact our whole lives, for we are called to live, love, forgive, serve and give in ways that will reflect God’s nature to others (Matt 5:16) Grace-made people need to be gracious and graceful, so that a world starved of love and grace can learn something of the true nature of God.

We are brought up in a society which places great value on understanding. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but it can be limiting in our spiritual journey if we place understanding at the top of our list of essential requirements. We are finite beings. God is infinite. We dwell in time and space. God isn’t limited like that. So it is inevitable that there are questions to which we cannot comprehend the answers and aspects of life which we cannot at present understand.

Jesus said to his disciples as he washed their feet, ‘You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ (Jn 13:7) Many of our difficulties in life come because we do not understand God’s ways and are tempted to judge him by our own understanding. As we wrestle with difficult questions – why God allows natural disasters, why he does not put an instant end to suffering, why the wicked seem to flourish and the righteous flounder – we often feel as though God has forsaken us forever and struggle to understand the timescales of the unknown, which leave us asking ‘How long?’ (Ps 13:1-2) and ‘Why?’ (Ps 74:1, 10-11) Asaph’s comment ‘none of us knows how long this will be’ (Ps 74:9) reminds us that it can be the ‘not knowing’ and the ‘not understanding’ which leave us flat on our faces unable to carry on in faith.

Prov 3:5-6 reminds us that it’s dangerous to lean on our understanding, for it has precarious foundations. Despite what we are taught at school about the need to understand to progress in life, we have to be able to embrace not understanding in order to make spiritual progress. Anselm said we believe in order to understand, not the other way around.

Faith accepts God’s evaluations – that he is good and loving, acting always in our best interests and working in righteousness, justice and integrity – rather than our own. It’s time to progress from the temper tantrusm of the toddler who howls the place down because a parent does not grant instant gratification of a desire to a mature confidence in God as our loving Father, who will not give us more than we can bear and who works for the good in every situation, even if we don’t understand. (1 Cor 10:13, Rom 8:28)