Discouragement

Reid Tait

Midland SDA Church

October 15, 2011

 

Life Disappointment turns to Discouragement—Discouragement to depression—disappointment--Attitude to recovery.  Charles R. Swindoll in his book “The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1,501 other Stories” p. 164 quotes Larry Olsen, Outdoor Survival Skills” where Larry Olsen describes a man lost in the desert:  “He has been out of food and water for days.  His lips are swollen, his tongue is swollen, he’s all beat up and bloody.  Some of his bones are almost peeking through.  He has been scraped and beat up by the cactus and sand and sun.  He’s blistered.  As he’s crawling over this little hill he comes across this little plant and props himself up on one bloody elbow, looks down at this plant and says, “you know, if things keep going like this I might get discouraged!”

            John Lawrence, Down to Earth, writes “It was Advertised that the devil was going to put his tools up for sale.  On the date of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price.  There were a treacherous lot of implements.  Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Doubt, Lying, Pride, and so on.  Laid apart from the rest of the pile was a harmless—looking tool, well-worn and priced very high.

            “The name of the tool?” asked one of the purchasers.

            “Oh,” said the adversary, “that’s Discouragement.”

            “Why have you priced it so high?”

            “Because it’s more useful to me than the others.  I can pry open and get inside a person’s heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools.  Now once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose.  It’s badly worn tool, because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me.”

The devil’s price for Discouragement was so high, he never sold it.  It’s still his major tool, and he still uses it on God’s people today.”

As Christians we have a problem with unanswered prayer.  A person accepts Christ as his Savior and enters on a new life of faith.  We find security and happiness that we have never known before and we thank God for His amazing grace.  Then something goes terribly wrong.  It may be illness, loss of job, or family problems.  The new Christian goes to God in prayer—and nothing seems to happen!  We do not understand.  Our faith is shaken.  Why doesn’t God do something about it?  Have you ever felt that way?  So did Job in Job 30:20-31 and follow along as I read from Today’s English Bible (TEB).

            “I call on you, O God, but you never answer;

               and when I pray, you pay no attention.

            You are treating me cruelly;

              You persecute me with all your power.

            You let the wind blow me away;

               You toss me about in a raging storm.

            I know you are taking me off to my death,

               To the fate in store for everyone.

            Why do you attack a ruined man,

               One who can do nothing but beg for pity?

            Didn’t I weep with people in trouble

               And feel sorry for those in need?

            I hoped for happiness and light,

               But trouble and darkness came instead.

            I am torn apart by worry and pain;

               I have had day after day of suffering.

            I go about in gloom, without any sunshine;

               I stand up in public and plead for help.

            My voice is as sad and lonely

               As the cries of a jackal or an ostrich.

            My skin has turned dark;

               I am burning with fever.

            Where once I heard joyful music,

               Now I hear only mourning and weeping.”

Job30:20-31

            Dear brothers and sisters “at one time or the other doesn’t Job’s feelings reflect your feelings sometime during your life.  Someone is going through this experience right now.

 

We are going to look at the following solutions to the problem of disappointment and discouragement:

            Accept life

            Anxious about Factors Beyond Our Control

            Blessing from Tragedy

            Compassion from Experiencing and Observing Suffering

            Prayer

Accept Life:  “Life is not fair” the old saying goes.  Job’s problems were not because of what he did for Job 1:1 says “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.  Satan was the problem and still is. 

 

The prophet Habakkuk sees the sins of Judah and prays for them. (Read Habakkuk 1:1-4)   He knows they should be punished, but at the same time he is afraid.(Habakkuk 1:5-8).  The use of the Chaldeans—Babylon will cause suffering by both the righteous and un-righteous.  In Habakkuk 2:4 God promises “Those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God”.  God also reminds Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in holy Temple; let everyone on earth be silent in his presence.” TEB  Habakkuk gets the point just as Job did.  God is in control and Habakkuk writes the following in his prayer in chapter 3:17-19 T.E. V.

 

“Even though the fig trees have no fruit

     And no grapes grow on the vines,

Even though the olive crop fails

     And the fields produce no grain,

Even though the sheep all die

     And the cattle stalls are empty,

I will still be joyful and glad,

     Because the Lord God is my savior.

The Sovereign Lord gives me strength,

He makes me sure-footed as a deer

     And keeps me safe on the mountains”

 

Norval F. Pease in his Book “Saint Under Stress” , p. 108 paraphrase Habakkuk as follows:

Even though the hospitals are filled with the sick and dying,

Even though little children are maimed and abused,

Even though cancer rages throughout the world,

Even though heart disease claims its millions,

Even though multitudes are dying from hunger,

Even though injuries cause pain and disfigurement,

Even though old age and death are somber and saddening,

‘I will still be joyful and glad,

Because the Lord God is my savior

The Sovereign Lord gives me strength.’”

 

We need to have faith that a good and loving God, in His own way and time, will eliminate the pain and sorrow and violence and sin and the curse of death.

 

Anxious about Factors Beyond Our Control:

First we must remember that most of what we worry about never happens

Second when praying for the sick or dying—Pray If the life of the sick can glorify God, we pray that they may live:  nevertheless, not as we will but as He will.  Our faith can be just as firm, and more reliable, by committing the desire of the will-wise God, and, without feverish anxiety, in perfect confidence, trusting all to Him. 

We need to realize that some of our requests should not be granted and others cannot be.  Others cannot be may surprise you:  Abigail Van Buren, in her “Dear Abby” column, Riverside Press-Enterprise, April 30, 1978,  published the following letter and her reply:

            “Dear Abby:  My husband and I have long been faithful readers of your column, and as I have no one to turn to in my hour of despair, I must talk to someone.

            “How does one go on when his faith in prayer is shattered and the bottom has fallen out of everything?  I feel as if my life is over and even my prayers are useless now.

            “We adopted a little boy when he was eight days old.  We loved that child more than our own flesh and blood.  We prayed for him constantly.  Yet, between the ages of 14 and 19 he went from skipping school to robbery and , now to rape.

            “Our hearts are broken.  Our son was raised in a good Christian home.  We went to church every Sunday and always tried to set a good example,  We never had tobacco or liquor in the house.

            “Where have our prayers gone?  We cannot understand it.  We are numb, sick, and brokenhearted.  God bless you if you can help us.---Heartbroken.”

            “Dear Heartbroken:  You speak of prayer as though it was a premium you paid for insurance against all ills and evils.  It is not.  Prayer is simply a talk with one’s God.  No amount of praying will protect another, in this case your adopted son, from the consequences of his own actions.  Each man must do his own praying, just as each man must accept the consequences of his own behavior.

            “I don’t know where your son went wrong.  But your faith in prayer should not have been shattered because he did.” 

What is Abby saying to this couple?  We cannot compel someone to make the choices that we want them to and God does not compel us to do His will against our will.  Always remember the problem is neither lack of faith on our part, nor lack of concern on God’s part.  It is a lack of wisdom or commitment on the part of the person for whom we are praying which frustrates even God’s desires.  In our minds we remember Christ’s rebuke of His disciples found in Matthew 17:19, 20.  Faith of a mustard seed therefore we blame ourselves for lack of faith.

 

Blessing from Tragedy:  Joni Eareckson teenager who broke her back in a diving accident:  “I even feel privileged.  God doesn’t give such special attention to everyone and intervene that way in their lives.  He allows most people to go right on in their own ways.  He doesn’t interfere even though He knows they are ultimately destroying their lives, health, happiness, and it must grieve Him terribly.  I’m really very thankful He did something to get my attention and change me.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 15, 16 “We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated:  we are puzzled, but never in despair.  We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone:  we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out!  Everyday we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours . . . .We wish you could see how all this is working out for your benefit, and how the more grace God gives, the more thanksgiving will redound to his glory.  This is the reason that we never collapse.”

 

Compassion from Experiencing and Observing Suffering:  The Christian response to suffering it compassion—like that of our Lord.” “The people around us suffer pain, illness, disappointment, failure, anxiety, loss, bereavement, accident, and heartache.  We wouldn’t know how to relate to them if none of these things happened to us.”  Norval F. Pease, “Saint Under Stress” p. 112. 

 

George Buttrick sensed the importance of compassion when he wrote:  “There are business men who see only things—sales resistance, charts, profits.  There are other business men who see faces—faces of those who work for them, and the faces of those who have no work.  There are statesmen who see only things—battleships, voting booths, newspaper headlines; and there are other statesmen who see faces—faces of the poor, faces of little children, and myriad faces slain in war.  There are would-be preachers who see only things—church buildings, card indexes, yearbook figures; and there are other preachers, ordained by a tenderness beyond the hand of man, who see faces—faces wistful and sin-scarred, lonely and brave.  Jesus saw nothing on earth but faces, nothing in heaven but faces, nothing in hell but faces.  Buttrick, God, Pain, and Evil. p. 120.  What do you see?

 

Never Give Up Praying:  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (p. 1681).  We should never allow anything to cause us to discontinue the practice of prayer.  Some may stop praying because it seems that their prayers aren’t doing any good.  The sick person for whom we have been praying dies; the wayward child becomes more rebellious; business gets worse instead of better.  When we are disappointed-discouraged and our prayers do not seem to reach beyond our lips—if there is ever a time when we should pray it is then.  Spurgeon once said, “It may be your prayer is  like a ship, which, when its goes on a very long voyage, does not come home laden so soon, but when it does come home, it has a richer freight.”  Some blessings cannot be granted until persistent prayer has deepened the experience and purified the motives. 

 

Prayer is the Key in the hand of faith that unlocks heaven’s storehouse.

 

 

 

 

With discouragement as a tool, Satin said, I can pry open and get inside a person’s heart with that one, when I cannot get near him with other tools.  Now once I get inside, I can make him do what I choose.  It’s badly worn tool, because I use it on almost everyone since few people know it belongs to me.”  We know!

You remember the story of the man in the desert.  This is my version of the story.  We’ve been out of spiritual food and water for days.  our lips are swollen, our tongues are swollen, we are all beat up and bloody from the battles of life..  Some of our bones are almost peeking through.  We’ve been scraped and beat up by the temptations and sin  and discouragement.  We’re blistered by abuse.  We crawl over the little hill Satin’s stumbling stones and we come across this little mustard plant of faith and prop ourselves up on one bloody elbow, look down in faith at this plant of grace and say, “you know, if things keep going like this I might get discouraged if it wasn’t for the Shepherd Jesus the Christ, God’s grace, and my little mustard seed of faith which God has given me.”

 

Accept life

Do not be Anxious about Factors Beyond Our Control

Receive blessing from Tragedy

Learn compassion from Experiencing and Observing Suffering

Rejoice always and Prayer without ceasing

 

Our Shepherd (Jesus Christ) Will Supply Our Needs.  Turn in your Hymnal to 104