What Can I Do When I'm Totally Discouraged?

October 14, 2013 What Can I Do When I'm Totally Discouraged? Please “Share” this link to a new Precious Prodigal Post: http://www.preciousprodigal.com/blog/blog=index.html

Deut 1:31 “And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went.”

I’m mostly an upbeat person and not easily discouraged. That doesn’t mean I deny that life is a hard journey, most of it in the wilderness, when you love a prodigal. I’m right there with you; I know how tough it is. But I absolutely believe and usually put into practice the words of Abraham Lincoln when he said, “Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” So I was surprised and a little dismayed when I had two full weeks of feeling totally discouraged.

My usually optimistic self, smiling and shaking her head at the irony of life, making smart-alec comments, stubbornly unwilling to quit, and seeing the humor in every situation was on strike. I moped around the house with a major case of the “mollygrubs,” feeling sorry for myself and telling myself over and over again that life wasn’t fair. Instead of being an encouragement to anyone, my face and my attitude would have been a great advertisement for the book of Lamentations. I was miserable.

While there really were some things…legitimate things…that I was distressed about, I didn’t help the situation, and I certainly didn’t help myself by puking out negativity every time I opened my mouth. Nor did it make me feel better to continue playing the same things over and over again in my mind. I continued to read my Bible, and I continued to pray. I even meditated on verses like Deut. 1:30 where Moses reminded the Israelites of all that God had done before their eyes. I too have seen God do miraculous things. No doubt you have as well. And it usually helps me to focus my mind on verses like that. Not this time. So what can we do when praying and meditating on all God has done in the past doesn’t break the discouragement that’s suffocating us?

The answer for me was to remember that when the journey is beyond my small strength, when I’ve put forth all the effort and energy I have, when I can’t walk one more step in the wilderness…God will pick me up and carry me “as a man doth bear his son.” He’ll carry you too, and He’ll carry us “wherever we need to go” until we gain enough strength to walk just a little further. (Deut 1:31) That’s one of those truths that doesn’t depend on how I feel or how you feel or what we think.

What did I do? I gave myself permission to feel sad and lonely and even discouraged. They were, after all, just feelings. And in faith I rested on God’s promise that He will carry me with the gentle, compassionate love of my Abba father carrying His beloved child. That doesn’t mean my heart didn’t hurt. It did. It doesn’t mean I immediately felt better. I didn’t. What it does mean is that I can trust God even in the midst of my discouragement and remind myself that this too shall pass. And I can know that when it does, I’ll be able to look back and see that God carried me, doing for me what I could not do for myself.

Challenge for Today: Are you discouraged? Can you, just for today, rest in God’s promise that He will gently carry you until you can begin to walk again?

Author's Note

October 14, 2013
What Can I Do When I'm Totally Discouraged?
Please “Share” this link to a new Precious Prodigal Post:
http://www.preciousprodigal.com/blog/blog=index.html