Overcoming Discouragement

Don Brueske, Church Chairman

On a recent vacation I decided to take along a book by Jim Cymbala, Fresh Faith. I found the ideas expressed in the chapter on Discouragement so helpful. I shared at a recent council meeting some of those thoughts. I would like to share some of them with you as well. These thoughts concern Caleb and Joshua who were two of the twelve that spied out the land that God had promised to Israel. These two were faithful in respect to their relationship with God and brought back a "good report"! The other ten spies brought back an "evil report", according to the King James version (Numbers 13:32).

• I would like to share several paragraphs from chapter eight. "Let me tell you about a time when a group of very smart folks showed great realism based on obvious facts---and the results were disastrous. After receiving the Ten Commandments and other instructions from God, Moses sent twelve spies to check out the real estate of Canaan. God had already said He would give it to the Hebrews; in fact, He had begun making that promise several hundred years before, to Abraham."
• "Moses sent the twelve simply to gather information, not to form opinions. All he assigned them to do was to ‘see what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they walled or unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not’?" (Numbers 13:18 - 20).
• "When they returned from their field trip, however, ten of the spies went far beyond their assignment. They reported the data accurately---and then immediately got ‘realistic’ by adding, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are…. The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size…. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them’ (vv. 31-33). This report went against all God had promised, and thus their common sense realism affected the destiny of a whole generation of Israelites.
• The people began to panic and murmur against God…. Who could have known that this report and the discouragement it triggered would provoke God to the point of saying, "All right—that’s it! You will not go into Canaan now after all; you will spend another thirty-eight years wandering in this desert instead. In fact, nearly all of you here today will never get to the Promised Land at all. You’re going to grow old and die out here on these sands’."

Sobering isn’t it? So how did the above paragraphs help me in regard to discouragement? It tells me that if I form opinions that are counter to God’s promises to me, that I will become discouraged. It tells me that if I go beyond what God asks of me and bring a bad (evil) report that affects other people, that the results could be disastrous for me and for them.

Hebrews 10:23-25 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

I Corinthians 15:57-58 says, "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

• These verses encourage us to be faithful in our walk with the Lord, to be dependent on Him. To let go of those things in our lives that are counter to what He wants for us. We are encouraged to carve out time for him in prayer, in requests and thanksgiving for others and ourselves.
• These verses encourage us to be faithful in our relationships with one another, to be careful about the things we say, and the attitudes that we express. To exhort one another in love and stir up one another to good works.
• These verses encourage us to be faithful in our giving in our local church body. We are encouraged to walk in victory, to be steadfast and to be abounding. This has reference to the outflow from the inflow that God puts within us.

Let’s not give in to discouragement! Let’s be like Caleb and Joshua, who were strong in faith, pleasing the Lord God in every way possible.