2002-10-21
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
The Holy Spirit leads me to continue discussing another of Satan’s fiery darts, discouragement, and what God has to say about it that can strengthen our faith. All of us have felt discouragement at one time or another, as it is one of Satan’s favorite tools in trying to challenge our faith and lead us to believe his lies. The “father of all lies” [JN 8: 44] hates to see us feeling confident as we are reminded to do in 2 TIM 1: 7, “For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, His Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control.” We must not forget that Satan fuels the desires of the flesh and lives to oppose everything we learn from our Lord. We are given to power to fend off his challenges to our faith, but often forget them when Satan leads us to discouragement. I thought about what would be a good working definition of discouragement and came up with this one. Discouragement is the emotional fatigue we feel when a significant disappointment has come our way or when we have been battling Satan’s attacks for a long time. Psychologists like to say it’s a result of emotional trauma, long term illness, loss, or disappointment. God does provide wisdom for how to respond to it.
The great beauty of having the endurance and self-discipline that deep faith gives us is that we are open to see God’s perspective on what is causing our discouragement. His perspective is often very different that the one our human nature gives us. 1 JN 5: 14, “We have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that He hears us if we ask Him for anything that is according to His will.” How do we know this is true? We have been told that in JN 15: 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish and you shall have it.” We also have the witness of others who have experienced God listening to their prayers to buoy up our tired spirits. PS 66: 16-20, “Come listen all you who fear God. Let me tell you what He had done for me. I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God Who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love for me.” PS 116: 1, “I love the Lord, because He hears our prayers and answers them.” EZRA 8: 22-23, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him. So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He answered our prayer.”
People who don’t know God’s perspective on matters like death, for example, feel abject hopelessness from which there seems to them to be no return upon the loss of a loved one. Those of us with faith, on the other hand, know that our faithful loved ones are slipping quietly into the hands of the Father Who is taking them to one of those mansions which Christ has told us in JN 14: 2 that has been prepared for him. They know that their loved ones will be fully healed without pain or sorrow to live in eternal joy and fellowship with the Father [REV 21: 4; PS 41: 3]. 1 COR 2: 14 explains why people without faith can’t enjoy God’s perspective; in fact, they have no access to it. “Whoever does not have the Sprit cannot receive the gifts that come from God’s Spirit. Such a person really dos not understand them; they are foolishness to him, because their value can only be judged on a spiritual basis.”
God gives us more than just His perspective. He gives us friends in that special supernatural relationship, called “koininea” in Greek, that bonds Him to us and all other believers. We are told to encourage each other and to love each other as Christ loves us [JN 13; 34-35]. Part of demonstrating that love is support each other when trouble and emotional fatigue arise with prayer, through listening, offering encouragement, and in friendship. When Christ is in leadership in a congregation, the members of that congregation find joy in lifting up their brothers and sisters who are going through hard times. Organizations like Befrienders and the Stephen’s ministry go a long way to help make that person to person to God connection during low times. Prayer chains are meant to aid in that purpose, obeying EPH 6: 18 where we are told to pray for all of God’s children as led by the Spirit. When we realize that faith, study of God’s word, prayer, and friendship in love are all weapons against Satan’s fiery dart of discouragement, it is not hard to realize why Satan hates these things so much.
I would be remiss if I didn’t cite 2 COR 10: 3-5 here in response to the discouragement people feel when Satan’s lies and false arguments seek to create artificial divisions between them. “It is true that we live in the world but we do not fight from worldly motives. The weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” We are called to examine our own lives to see how we react when discouraged and to help others who are discouraged.
PRAYER: O Lord, through Your wisdom, You have shown us how to turn Satan’s world upside down. What great power You have and have shared with us to thwart his ugly motives. Your light shining through our eyes is a symbol of the perspective on mankind’s suffering that You have given us and the love You have taught us through Your Son. You guide us to care for the needs of others. 1 PET 3: 8 gives us sage advice that could only come from You. “To conclude: you must all have the same attitude and the same feelings; love one another as brothers, and be kind and humble with one another.” Your Son modeled what we should do when confronted by a discouraged person or are feeling discouraged ourselves. It was He who reminded us in MT 11: 28-30 to place our burdens on His shoulders. “Come to Me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke and put it on you, and learn from Me because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I give you is easy, and the burden is light.” PS 68: 19 helps us to see Your compassionate and loving perspective on our emotional fatigue. “What a glorious Lord! He Who daily bears our burdens also gives us our salvation.” Repeatedly, You have reminded us through the Scriptures and the kind words of faithful brothers and sisters to turn to You first when trouble seems to overwhelm us. And, You have given us the Holy Spirit to explain the Scriptures, prayer to send our concerns to Christ-Who acts as our Advocate and Intercessor with You [HE 4: 15, 8: 1-2, and 9: 12], and the loving friendship of other faithful people around us who take joy in listening to and encouraging us when we are blue. Dearest Abba, a compassionate hug from a loving friend lifts us up. The tears that flow when we are discouraged free our bodies of damaging chemicals that arise from stress and sorrow. We are so wonderfully crafted by You [PS 139: 14]. You are such an awesome God! We stand before You today in humility to give confession of our sins and to offer You our eternal adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks and praise. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to begin a new segment of this Spiritual Warfare series about salvation, the helmet we can don as another weapon against Satan’s attacks [EPH 6: 16]. We will look at how our willingness to repent from our sins and have faith in Christ has led to God claiming ownership of us. This is one of the great blessings of being saved. Such weapons and blessings as we have already seen in this series would never be available to us had it not been for the love that God has for His children. This love is nothing new. It existed before the Creation and will exist for eternity. Our God, while capable of great wrath against those who continually reject Him, is the most significant Source of love we can have in our lives. There is nothing shallow, fickle, or full of hidden evil agendas in His love. It is a force for goodness, blessing, instruction, protection, provision, and so much more that we need in our lives. We are greatly privileged to call Yahweh [God], Yeshua [Christ], the Ruach HaKodesh [Holy Spirit], our Deity. To know and share His love is bliss! Peter and I also send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn