Handling Discouragement

  1. We are to build a city, we are here to change nations. The influence has already started and we are reaching there. Believe it and God will take you there.It is easier to build a church where most members sit inactive in the pews, rather than one where members are on fire and active to do God’s work. Every man of God has paid a price for the anointing he holds.When we think of great leaders, we think that they have made it suddenly. They had a price to pay. One thing they had to deal with, is discouragement. From the initial stage of excitement at starting something new, and if we are not careful, we can face discouragement with innocent people being blamed and wrong people appreciated.Discouragement may be in the form of mild scorn intensifying to ridicule, to making us doubt ourselves and to being threatenedThe book of Nehemiah speaks about the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after their captivity by King Artaxerxes. The Jews find that the walls of the city were broken down and the gates burned with fire (Neh.2:13). Nehemiah was distressed by this and desired to rebuild the walls (Neh.2:17), but faced discouragement.

    Neh.2:19 Sanballat laughed at Nehemiah and his team as they rebuilt the wall. When somebody comes to you with discouragement, speak to him what God has said to you. If God has given you a vision, hang on; because while your goals are on sand, the vision is written on rock even if people ridicule you.   There is a big difference between disappointment and discouragement.Disappointment cannot be avoided, but we can handle discouragement and prevent it from blocking our work with God.Discouragement may come from the enemy, people, Satan as well as God’s people (Neh. 4:12)

    Neh.4:3 Such statements make you doubt yourself. And Nehemiah prayed (Neh.4:4) – He knew something about trusting God. As the enemy conspired to attack Jerusalem and create confusion, Nehemiah and his team set a watch. Half of the team worked at construction while the other half held weapons. Those on the wall worked with one hand and held weapons with the other – peace settlements don’t work here (Neh. 4:6 to 5:7).

    Finally, the enemy tries to hit at Nehemiah’s character (Neh. 6:5-7). When we are building God’s kingdom, we will face discouragement and need to be on guard.

    Causes of discouragement and the way to handle it, is to go back to God:

    1) When people say wrong or negative things and if we listen

    2)Exhaustion – physical and emotional.

    3) When we are fearful

    Remember that Jesus has already won the battle for us on the cross and we can avoid discouragement by focusing on Jesus and deriving our strength from Him.

This message was preached by Wellington Gomes on 15th January 2017

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