I Hate Discouragement

I Hate Discouragement. I’ve been there… Your faith feels like it is on hospice. The only bravery you have left is in the face you put on for others (which helps you feel fake and isolated). Not very pleasant already. But then, the obnoxious thing preys on your insecurities and inadequacies and makes everyday life the ugliest shade of gray. Spend any time with the thing and you begin to settle for lesser desires, dreams, and destinations.

It is a sad thing to find oneself discouraged. If you have ever felt like this or if you are currently feeling like this, I write to you today to let you know that you are not as messed up as you think. Trust me, I believe we all deserve a slap and a good kick in the rear from time to time, but luckily Jesus took care of the punishment side of things for our sins at the cross. So, the moment we ask God for forgiveness, then we receive it and boom… no more punishment. Praise God for His mercy. The only things left for us to deal with are Satan and ourselves. Satan got whipped down in hell by Jesus for three days, so though he can hinder and tempt us, we technically have him whipped already too. So, I guess the only thing we have to deal with now… is ourselves. Don’t worry, I think we have all messed up this part plenty.

For the time being though, put your discouragement on hold. Give yourself a break for a second, forget about the problems, how you are going to fix your money issues, how you are going to make that life altering decision, etc.... and take a deep breath. Take a step back from your situation, and read on with a clear mind. You don’t have to understand everything to understand that God loves you and will take care of you. His goodness and mercy are vast.

Child of God, put plainly, anything you are dumb enough to mess up, God is smart enough to make brand new. God’s bigger than you are little. The worst sin you’ve ever committed doesn’t even compare to the weight of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. There is no hole so deep that God’s love can’t reach in and rescue you. I know you feel like you’ve let Him down, but you haven’t. Not because He wasn’t counting on you, but because you weren’t propping God up to let Him down in the first place. God is God all by Himself. Don’t sell your Daddy short. He is well able to take care of it, and most of the time, He’ll give us another shot to get it right on the specific endeavor we messed up. We all know that God defined Himself by and as Love. So we can equate 1 Corinthians 13, what many of us refer to as the “love chapter,” to a description of who God is. You want to know how God starts off defining Himself? “Love is Patient.…” God lets you know right up front, “I’m patient.” Friend, God will wait thirty years on somebody to get it right. His faithfulness and patience are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Trust in His patience. He’s more patient than you are, and that’s a good thing too. I would have given up on me a long time ago, but He didn’t, and I’m praising Him for it every day.

I know all the unpleasant things that accompany discouragement are a major bummer. Yet, amidst all these things, God is still good. The voice of discouragement is unbelief. Don’t give it a voice. You may feel a whole bundle of things, but only speak faith. You can feel as dry as the Sahara on the inside, and as weak as a politician’s promise, but don’t give voice to it. Never, for one moment, consent or yield to the idea that God can’t or won’t take care of you. God is faithful and patient. Faith is simple: Do you trust God? Doubt is complicated, there are many factors to consider and all of them are bad… Choose faith. Choose life. You’ll still have feelings, they’ll still come, and sometimes they’re persistent little boogers, but keep standing, and keep fighting that good fight of faith, and they’ll break, and you’ll be able to see the light again.

I love you my brother and sister.

Triumphant in Christ,

Jake Provance