Discouragement

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7 NLT)

Discouragement can cover a wide range of feelings, from relatively minor, as mine were, to so overwhelming that we feel crushed.

Discouragement can grow out of problems, failures, difficulties, obstacles, loneliness, traumatic situations such as a friend or loved one’s death, the loss of a job, the need to move far away from family and friends, being gossiped about, the loss of a beloved pet, diagnosis of a serious disease, etc.

If you study the lives of Job, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Elijah, Peter, Paul, etc., you will see that they also went through some pretty hard times when their spirits were cast down and they were feeling hopeless.

God does not look down on me for experiencing these human emotions. As the Bible says, “For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.”

Jesus knows our weaknesses and that we can’t always see past the emotions we’re being deluged with. He walks with us through those times, sharing our load and encouraging us to look up so that we can find our way out.—MF [1]

Jesus didn’t promise to change the circumstances around us, but He did promise great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things.—Merlin Carothers (1924–2013)

[1] “Fighting Discouragement.” Anchor, May 7, 2020.