Evangel Prison Ministries
What does it
mean to be discouraged? It means to deprive of courage (mental or moral
strength) or hope, to hinder (to deter, to interfere with the progress
of.)
Down through the ages men and women of God have suffered discouragement.
People like the Israelites who were discouraged about going over into
the Promised Land that God had given to them. Then there was Hannah who
was unable to conceive children and as a result became discouraged to
the point that she was unable to even eat. And of course, David, who after
the Amalekites attacked Ziklag and destroyed it by fire, then took the
women, sons and daughters of David and his soldiers’ captive and
as a result his own soldiers talked of stoning him. David was greatly
distressed but in his discouragement the bible says that David encouraged
himself or found strength in the Lord his God. Hannah in the book of 1
Samuel was a woman of prayer and she was encouraged by the prophet Eli
and made the decision to leave her problem with God, the problem solver.
Discouragement can often come through family members like Eliab, David’s
oldest brother who after hearing David speak with some men about killing
the giant Goliath, criticized David and told him how conceited he was,
how wicked his heart was and accused him of only coming to watch the battle.
Sometimes discouragement comes through people that are in high positions,
as was the case in Nehemiah 4:1-5.Sanballat, the governor of Samaria,
and Tobiah the Ammonite, ridiculed the Jews and tried to dissuade them
from rebuilding the wall, but Nehemiah prayed and the work on the wall
continued.
Finally, discouragement can come through friends like Job’s friends
in the book of Job 16:1-5. His friends were supposed to be comforting
Job in his losses but instead of giving him the comfort that he so desperately
needed from them, they condemned him for causing his own suffering.
The good news for us as believers in Christ is that we can turn discouragement
into opportunities and rise above the things that are coming against us
to bring us down. The Apostle, Paul, saw his imprisonment, in the book
of Philippians, as an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He turned what was a bad situation into a good one by realizing that his
circumstances were not nearly as important as what he did with them. Here’s
what he said in Philippians 1, “Now I want you to know, brothers,
that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and
to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.” Because of Paul’s
attitude toward his imprisonment he became an encouragement to others
who were afraid of persecution in that day by showing his faith in Christ
at a time when it was not a popular thing to be a Christian.
There’s a song called “His eye is on the sparrow” that
goes like this: “Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows
fall? Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven’s home?
When Jesus is my portion, a constant friend is He. His eye is on the sparrow
and I know He watches me.”
In Psalm 84:3 the bible tells us “that even the sparrow has found
a home”- a place of rest, security, a shelter from storms, and protection.
The sparrow is said to be the most worthless of all the birds, yet God
still takes notice of them and provides for them. God is aware of everything
that happens to sparrows and aren’t we worth more than many sparrows
according to God’s word? (Matthew10:30). Turn your face away from
circumstances and people that discourage you and look to God, after all
He’s the author and the finisher of your faith!