Dispelling Discouragement

January 25

Discouragement can dog our heels. Whether in our professional or personal or spiritual endeavors, we can get in a funk. We may not even know why our outlook is so bleak, we just know that it is. For some inexplicable reason, we feel that the weight of the world is pressing us down and we can’t get out from under it.

We may try to analyze the feeling, trace it to its source, but often, we can’t make any headway toward reaching an understanding of it. Perhaps that’s because it doesn’t have a rational basis. If it were someone or something that triggered it, we’d probably know. If it’s not outside ourselves, if it’s deep within, it may be inscrutable.

The Word tells us that we don’t know our own hearts because they are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) so it is not beyond the realm of reason that we would not be able to grasp the intents that spring from there. But the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15:58 gives us a way to grapple with the heart, the unruly seat of our emotions.

He says, “Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” If we will keep ourselves focused on the things of Christ, we will not soon be discouraged, for His Holy Spirit will encourage us. Discouragement cannot abide in His presence!