Often, we find ourselves at a station in life when we are facing discouragement. It happens when we take our eyes off of God and His promises and instead focus on what is happening around us. This is a dangerous time for a Christian and I believe it is a favorite tool of the enemy to try and destroy our relationship with God.
Discouragement happens when our expectations from God do not match what the Lord is doing in and around us. We think things should happen in a certain way and, when they don’t, we begin to doubt God’s promises. I would be lying if I didn’t confess that there are many days when I am discouraged by the progress of our church plant. I recognize that planting a church is difficult; planting a church in secular humanistic Europe is even harder. It takes time, effort, and money to establish a new work, but my mind will often tell me that “things should be moving faster.”
The reason discouragement is dangerous is because it causes us to doubt the promises of God, the goodness of God, and the calling God has on our lives. And it is in these times when we must choose to trust in God for our future, no matter what our present looks like. God is faithful. God is just. God is merciful. He wants us to fulfill the calling on our lives. He wants his kingdom to move forward. The problem is that, often, our timing of what should happen is not in sync with the Lord’s perfect timing.
In these moments, we must walk by faith. We must choose to trust God and His promises. We must not doubt His calling on our lives. We must walk by faith and not by feelings. We must remind ourselves that God has a plan and He wants what is best for us. I remember a very old song by the contemporary Christian band, the Imperials. The chorus to one of their songs went like this:
“He didn’t bring us this far to leave us.
He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown.
He didn’t build His home in us to move away.
He didn’t lift us up to let us down.”
God loves us. He is good. He is faithful. He is trustworthy. He is a good steward of His resources. All of these attributes should convince us that good things will happen if we just continue on and be faithful in what He has given us to do.
One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 42. There is a recurring refrain in both Psalm 42 and 43 that says, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Here the psalmist is encouraging himself to take his eyes off of his problems and put them instead on the One who is the answer to our problems. We would do well to do the same.
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