Psalm 55:22 "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."Discouragement takes three forms: 1) It is a normal reaction when one fails even though one's desire is to please God, 2) It's a tactic of Satan to usurp one's hope in Christ or 3) It's the inability to get what one wants. Discouragement is not of God in all cases. "Failure" is succumbing to temptation and the destruction of "hope" is the vocation of Satan. The latter is being self-centered and it too is Satan's desire because he knows that each one of us wants to be as gods.
In effect, then, discouragement is when Satan tries to defeat us. He entreats us to feel pleasure, but also uses a lack of satisfaction as a tool to bring us down. He tells us that we deserve pleasure then makes sure that we fail to get right pleasure!
For instance, my desire is to teach. In order to teach I need a forum. The most obvious forum is participation at church. It comes a time when there are not enough slots for everyone to minister. I was called to teach,and when I'm not teaching my calling is not fulfilled. Because I'm not able to have joy in teaching about the Lord, I am discouraged. What is paramount is to realize that I'm where Satan wants me. I focus on what I'm not getting, rather than what others need. In other words, rather than focusing on the Lord, it's on my own "self", so in effect I'm placing my "other god" before God!
This analysis is called "soul searching". It's looking for cause and effect and testing it with scripture. We don't have to be discouraged.
Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."Discouragement is being "heavy laden". It's having a burden constraining us. It's a lack of hope and joy. Jesus gave instructions for the malady of discouragement. "Come unto me." and what will he do "I will give you rest." or in other words, he will lighten the burden. Jesus wants our load to be light and he is the one and only one that can provide encouragement for sure. If we rely on others to do God's job, we are looking in the wrong place!
Things WILL go wrong in life. Romances will sour! People will feel slighted or betrayed. There are three things to do: 1) Change things, hopefully through prayer and instruction from the word, 2) have satisfaction with the way things are, or 3) continue to be discouraged.
If we make the choice to continue to be discouraged, things won't get better! We all should have the desire to get out of the slump, so that leaves leaning on the Lord for both other alternatives. For myself, that means either being satisfied with the way things are, or making a change. I don't want to do the latter because of friendships which I hate to leave behind. Then my prayer is for God to allow me to be satisfied with the mere worship of him. When I've got Jesus to lean on others cannot define my happiness unless I let them.
On the other hand, what church is it that has no need for willing workers? That still befuddles me! I need for that to be resolved in my mind, but until then, I'll lean on the Lord.
This type of spiritual discouragement "feels" just as does romantic hurt. There is a dire feeling of loss inside. When things don't please us in relationships, we feel pain inside. It may be that joy is gone from daily living. We are depending on others to make us happy when the only true happiness is with God. Satan's desire is for us to have no joy whether it be spiritual or with relationships. Even when friends abandon us, we have the same pain of discouragement. Oftentimes if one source of discouragement is defeated, it encourages enough to remove the funk in other aspects of life.
When a friend encourages, it helps in relationships with others. When friends encourage it helps our spiritual well-being. We all need encouragement and some have that gift. My intent right here is to encourage others who are dismayed as I encourage myself. I have a few great friends in church who encourage me enough to keep me from being heavy laden because in the eternal scheme of things is that I have the hope of salvation. All other things are secondary. The Lord says that he will lighten the burden. We are to let him do his work in us. That is to focus on the blessings which we have rather than fret at those we lack!
1 Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."
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