Fear and Discouragement are Brothers
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? (Mar 4:40)
Fear and discouragement go hand-in-hand. When we are discouraged over a set of circumstances, we’re fearful that these circumstances won’t work out to our liking. For example, finances. I remember prior to salvation, as a young married couple, my husband and I got into credit card debt. We both were discouraged. I remember staying up at night worrying and trying to come up with a solution but no solution could be found. I got more and more discouraged and then I became afraid. I was afraid of losing our car, our home, etc. Praise the Lord I was saved and delivered from this!!
My friend, this is a problem with a solution! Jesus, Himself, said that fear (and discouragement) comes from lack of faith in Mark 4:40. You do not need to stay discouraged. The longer you stay in this state, the harder it will be for you to get out. You must recognize your condition and immediately deal with it. Otherwise you are inviting the devil to bring you down deeper and deeper.
Get into the Word of God – force yourself to do so. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17) The Word will build your faith and will help you cleanse yourself. Encouraging one’s self is an on-going process – it’s not something you do once in a while. You wouldn’t miss a meal, would you? Without eating, you would get sick and eventually die. It’s the same with your spiritual body.
As you read the Word and encourage your spirit, you will be building your faith. You will see that the Lord will take care of those details which discourage you even when you think it is hopeless. God sees the “big picture” and knows exactly what you need. You must trust Him to do so. The Apostles in the boat were frightened and Jesus was right there with them. Well, my friend, you have Jesus’ Spirit living within you and He is right there with you as well. “… for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb 13:5) Your Heavenly Father knows your “make up” as He created you. He knows just how much you can take. You may not see an “end” to your circumstances, but stay strong in the Word and your faith will carry you through. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)
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Again very good post on discouragement. This would be a wonderful subject to put in a little pamphlet and give away to those that do get discourage quite often. Most of the things that we fear never come true anyway.
Bro Tim
It’s funny you say that, Bro. Tim. That is the whole purpose of these. My “spiritual mother” asked me to do a 30-day devo on this topic and these are a result of that request. If the Lord tarries, I will do other 30-day devos on other topics.
That’s a neat idea! You might run out of posts before then though (not trying to be a “discouragement” to your posting on this subject ;) , I don’t know if I could tackle 30 days in a row on the same theme…)- but then again, there is a lot in the Bible that you could incorporate into these studies. Think of Elijah and Job, think of so many of the Psalms/Psalmists, so many passages with principles on this or related themes. Looking forward to future devotions on this.
Just found your blog and I’m so glad I did, love your post :) I’m really looking forward to the devotions.
Have a great weekend,
Sandra
Thank you for speaking the Word of God straight to my heart. I will take your advice.