“He has the ministry of discouragement!” a friend jokingly told me about a professor we shared years ago. I do not remember the context of the discussion but I never forgot the statement. Ironically, there can be an unlikely ministry of discouragement. Not through condescending, or intentionally harmful speech, but what discouragement itself causes us to focus on and pay attention to. We can have the whole world at our finger tips and one event can change joy and laughter to self-focused morose contemplation. Regretfully, I have taken too many trips to that location in my walk with God.
There are two responses to discouragement as easily seen in the musical Les Miserable. The two leading characters demonstrate their faith and their struggles with failure and discouragement in polarizing ways. In one it leads to deeper faith and understanding and the other it leads to perpetual frustration and disillusionment. This is because discouragement is revealing. It reveals our very nature, our base-self if you will. When we are discouraged we discover our fears, weaknesses and insecurities. By this I do not espouse discouragement as an intentional means of motivation, but when, not if, it come we should use it as a means to discover why we are discouraged and what truths can we glean from such feelings. Life can be discouraging, things happen that require us to self-evaluate, grow and change. This does not negate the challenges of life to embrace a Pollyanna-ish outlook on circumstances but we can take the effects of life’s difficulties and use them to discover, improve and sanctify our lives toward the Gospel.
In the last two weeks I have had a few more “opportunities” for self discovery than I would like. Through job searching, rejection, and financial struggles I have painfully discovered where my true affections lie. Then I meet Theresa, a mother of two grown children who lost her husband suddenly to a heart attack 4 months ago. I talk with people who are hurting in significant ways or live with pain and disenchantment with the goodness of God and the viability of His church. I see people all around me hurting, sad, angry, and lonely. So, my attempt here and now is to speak truth to myself and help my heart see what my mind already knows. Maybe these will encourage you as well.
- God does actually love us– Seems stupid to say, but when discouragement comes, that is the first thing to get questioned. Does God really love me? If He does, why doesn’t He fix the pain? God’s love is not up for debate. His love was proven and forever demonstrated in the sacrifice of His own Son. (See Romans 8)
- Present pain is working to help us know God better – This is a hard pill to swallow especially if you are prone to self-effacing thoughts. We cannot see what God is doing, we know not how long the night will last, but He is not wasting a bit of it and is using this for His glory not our own.
- Faith is that thing we desperately need but don’t like to exercise – I hate exercise. It is against everything in me. But if I don’t, muscles will atrophy and become weak. Faith similarly must be exercised. God is never done. There is no spiritual GPS that announces we have arrived at our destination. He knows the end from the beginning and yet He asks us to trust him. (Hebrews 11)
- Hope is not blind to pain but shows us the path through it – It is easy to think God is removed from our pain, yet he is fully acquainted with our suffering and shares in our pain. Have hope that the path may be narrow and steep but you will persevere if you have hope in Him.
- Sin is the problem and He is the solution. I am responsible for my sin(s). I choose to obey and disobey. His grace is sufficient and I am to confess my sins. (1 John 1:9) His grace will cover it but there will be consequences on earth for thoughts and deeds of the flesh. He is not surprised nor unprepared to take even our weaknesses and use them as a part of His eternal plan. This brings hope and gratitude for our failures. We are not punished but we are cleansed and sometimes the scrub brush works at our comfort to make us clean. (1 Cor. 10:13)
- Desire for God’s pleasure must supersede personal comfort – It is easy to struggle with the sense of pleasing God, because we know what wretches we are. Remember, God is pleased with us not on our merits but on the sacrifice of His own Son. This is liberating and constraining. Liberating in that we know we cannot do anything that will separate me from His love and a huge responsibility of gratitude to obey and follow because of such an awesome love that has been shown us. Therefore, comfort should be secondary to His pleasure. But that is not an easy thing to do. “Therefore I die daily” are Paul’s words to us to illustrate that it is a perpetual on-going struggle of the flesh to let go of my desires for His.
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Are you downcast, depressed, and discouraged? I have been, and will likely find myself tempted to go there again some day. What will we focus on? How will we let discouragement show us our own weaknesses and teach us more about God and the Gospel. Let the truths of God outweigh the weight of the world. We can either be Jean Valjean or Javier in our response. We can embrace the pain and see the redemptive value of discouragement or go on living in discouragement and let it lead us down a hopeless path of self-focused insecurity. Whether the wounds are inflicted by others or from within, know that out of that dark place, God is ever present and lovingly drawing us to Himself, with whom the ministry of discouragement can illuminate that there is truly no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.