Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Many children of God believe that discouragement is the devil’s number one and most effective weapon in his arsenal. With it, he does more harm to Christians than with anything else. There are many reasons Christians get discouraged. Here are just a few: A special prayer petition is not answered or long overdue, we are going through an exceptionally difficult trial, our obligations and responsibilities have grown to the point of overwhelming us, we see fellow believers being bad examples, or as in the case of the writer of Psalm 73, we see people who don’t believe or ever acknowledge God, prospering and not seeming to have the kinds of struggles we face constantly.
It is in the last example I just mentioned where it is pretty easy to see discouragement’s underlying problem as well as the remedy. Psalm 73: 2-3 reads: “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” As you can see I underlined the words: “when I saw.” Clearly he was focusing on the problem only, but now take a look at what verses 16-17 say: “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Here again, I underlined “till I entered the sanctuary of God” because that’s where the remedy lay. It is when he entered into God’s presence that he was no longer focusing on the problem but on God. Obviously, his focusing on the prosperity of the wicked had discouraged his heart. Then, being in God’s presence, he no longer had a problem with it. In fact, any time in the future when he would see wicked people seem to be prospering in their lives without God, he would be reminded that he was focusing on the wrong thing once again.
I know many people don’t like or even want to hear it, but the number one reason people get discouraged is because they have taken their eyes off of God. Do what Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73, did. Get back to Him quickly. Bring him your worries, cares, or burdens. When you do, your joy, peace, comfort, and assurance in Christ will be yours once again.
God’s promise for today: (Hebrews 4:15) “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
