Discouraged


 

 


Saul answered “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” 1 Samuel 21

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Judges 6:15

Discouragement is an ugly, insidious disease.  Looking around and feeling that all you have attempted has failed, that every effort is met with defeat, every relationship a fraud and all hope just slightly out of reach is completely debilitating.  That being true, think of what a fine tool discouragement is for our enemy.  If we can only see what we can see and not what God sees, we sometimes, too often for many of us, have to ask, “Why bother?”

          For a long time Gideon has been one of my favorite citizens of the Bible.  He is quick to say to God, “Not it!” Like Moses before him, Gideon is pretty sure God has the wrong guy. To paraphrase he says, “So here’s the deal, my family is less than stellar. In fact we barely make acceptable and out of that crowd, I am the bottom of the barrel.  No disrespect intended but I’m not your guy.” But God (my favorite words) knows better.

           I easily relate to Gideon. My background is nothing to talk about, my current status is barely a status at all and yet, I have felt God inviting me into his plan. Why? I have no idea. What I do know is that I tend react like Gideon, Saul, Moses and so many others.  The problem is that too often the results of my efforts seem to be as I expected, the sad sorry product of the least of the least.  What results from that? Discouragement!

          It is in those times that I have to remind myself of another piece of 1 Samuel. In chapter 16 verse 7b it says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”* The results of my efforts may not look like much to me but to God? They must be okay because he keeps coming back to me, giving me more opportunities.

          Discouragement is awful! It is so easy, so inviting to give up when things get tough, break our hearts, seem bigger or simply overwhelming. When that happens to you read about Saul, Gideon, Moses and so many others who didn’t see themselves as fit for Kingdom purposes.

          In secular terms remember this little gem.

“If your troubles are plentiful and your rewards are few.

Remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you.”

*This is spoken of David, another least of the crowd who eventually becomes King.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applause, Applause and Protection

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1 Reading some Scripture this morning I was reminded of a message that I watched from Louie Giglio. In it Louie described a child of God leaving her home for the day. He goes on about how the heavenly beings see it. With great excitement, he tells of the joy and applause going on in heaven as the woman gets in the elevator, gets to the parking lot and gets in her car. It’s hilarious and over the top, (remember I did say it was Louie Giglio!) but there’s a great lesson in it. My husband and I were watching a TV show about a fictional former president. At one point the poor man is just over the Secret Service detail. He’s tired of them following him around so he fires them. It takes less than five minutes for him to start to see all that they’ve been doing for...
Read more

My Father Saw That

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me, “for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 There’s a movie from several years ago that I absolutely love! It’s called “The American President.” The premise is that the president, who is a widower, has begun to date. He’s dating a lovely woman while running for reelection. His opponent is awful. He knows he doesn’t have much of a chance against the popular incumbent so he tries to make a mountain out of the molehill of the standing president’s romance. At one point there is a news clip that shows the woman in a protest during her college days. After the clip plays the opponent refers to the president’s lady friend as “the president’s whore.” She groans and says to the president “My father saw that!” She is devastated, not because what is being said is true but because her father, who she loves and respects, saw the clip and heard those words spoken about her. I thought of ...
Read more

Not Really god, where are you?

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon.”Baal answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps his is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:26b-27 Those who know me would be quick to tell you that I am a bit sarcastic. It’s a quality that I have passed on to my children and even some of my grandchildren. Some days I feel a little guilty. Is that really a quality that God wants to see in me? Certainly that cannot be my go to attitude but there are times that it comes in quite nicely. This morning, reading a totally unrelated verse, I was reminded of this account in the first book of Kings. (It begins at verse 16 and continues to the end of the chapter. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t and it if you have reread it. It’s great!) In this p...
Read more