Encouragement
& Discouragement
What an encouragement to realize
that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work. In His
hands we're not only useful, but priceless.
Joni Eareckson Tada
The Christian life is not a constant high. I
have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with
tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.' Billy Graham
If you look at the words encouragement and
discouragement they both contain the word courage.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is
David and Goliath. If anyone had reason
to be discouraged it was David. He was
the smallest of his brothers. Do you remember what one of his brothers said to
him when he asked “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and
removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
Remember how his oldest brother became angry
because David was asking the soldiers what they were going to do about this
huge Philistine who was defying the armies of God. His brother actually told him he knew the
pride and insolence of David’s heart and asked him why he left his sheep to
come down to the battle.
I don’t know about you but that would have
discouraged me. But David didn’t
stop. He just turned away from his
brother and asked the same question of the next person. When David continues to question why someone
isn’t doing something about this giant someone brings it to the attention of
Saul and Saul sends for David to be brought to him.
In 1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Let no
man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this
Philistine.” Here is where David should have been discouraged
again because Saul tells him, “You are not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his
youth.”
So look at this from our perspective. His oldest
brother has gotten angry with him and basically told him to go back to his
sheep. Saul has told him that he is not
mighty enough to fight the Philistine.
Then Goliath adds his two bits and makes fun of David and curses him and
his God.
David had the courage of God in his heart on
that day. He wasn’t going to let anything
discourage him from standing up for God.
We need that very courage today in a world that ridicules our God on a
daily basis. God is looking for warriors
to fight the battle of a lifetime and the only way we will get the courage we
need is to go to God. If we have Him
going before us we can’t lose.
Prayer for the Day:
Heavenly Father, sometimes I lack courage to face daily obstacles. The thing I often fail to do is to turn to
You for the courage I need. I pray for
the courage of David who knew whose he was and he had a heart for You. Please give me that same heart. A heart that will not accept words against
You. If I go to You for courage You will
give more than I will need. Thank you
for giving us examples to follow like David.
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