Dis-couraged

Discouragement effects everyone.

Job said, "God has no right to treat me like this... it isn't fair."

Elijah wrote, "I have had enough, Lord... Take my life."

King David wrote in Psalm 69, "I am exhausted from crying for help... waiting for my God to help me."

C.S. Lewis, "Where is God? Go to Him when your need is desperate... and what do you find? A door slammed in your face."

Mother Teresa once said, "In my soul, I can't tell you how dark it is... I feel like refusing God."

Billy Graham once said, "I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes."

And even Jesus Himself asked, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

So why do we think any of us would be immune to discouragement? Listen, it comes in all shapes and sizes. It could be from losing a job, losing somebody you love or you just losing your mind. And on top of that, what discourages you may not discourage the next person but that doesn't mean you are weaker, we're just all different.

What we really need to realize is that those things that happen to us that bum us out didn't surprise God. He knew it was going to happen to us and we have to understand He didn't cause them but He allowed them to happen. Not because He doesn't love us or because He's some evil overlord that gets His kicks out of kicking us around. But these things happen to us because He loves us enough to allow us to make our own choices in life... right or wrong. Now He doesn't want those discouraging things in our lives to make us bitter, He rather we become better in spite of them.

Now I know it sounds like I'm trying to be a ray of sunshine here... but in all honesty, as long as we're on this earth we will have problems, pain and heartache. It's just life in it's fallen state. But there is a God who loves us and tells us that He has plans to prosper us, and not harm us, plans for us to have hope and a future. And we can see those plans fulfilled even in those times of discouragement if we will not only except His Son as our Savior but live for Him as the LORD of our lives.