On my last post we have seen how discouragement can affect our life negatively, for it has the potential to contaminate our heart and blight our mind to such a point that our view of reality can become exceedingly demoralizing. Under its spell, true grit is reduced to dismay and living hope to despair. Added to it, as we have seen in my last post, it cannot be silenced. It will always find a way of utterance, and its speech will always affect the people who are slumbering in the vicinity of disbelief. It is indeed a force that must be confronted head on with all seriousness and determination.
Words of discouragement are prone to engender discouragement.
We, Christians, would do well to consider where our ears are turned and to whom we listen. Because as much as faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, discouragement often comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of discouraged people. This principle is persistently supported by the Scriptures and confirmed by human experiences.
As strange as it may appear, discouraged people seem to find solace when surrounded by people sharing their misery. In fact, they often become annoyed when people don’t agree with their hopeless approach and refuse to give heed to their defeatist messages.
An eloquent example
There is a story in the Book of Numbers which exemplifies the sort of discourses discouragement brings forth. God had told Moses to send 12 men, one from each tribe, to spy the Promised Land. On their return they praised the beauty and providence of the land:
“We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (Numbers 13:27).
In other words, the land matched what God had promised. But according to them there was an insurmountable problem:
Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan” (Num. 13:28,29).
When the people heard this disheartening report they became dispirited and began to protest and grumble before Moses. Fortunately, Caleb intervened with a positive message, a message rooted in God’s promise:
“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30).
What a contrast with the previous report. Here we see trust and faith, boldness and assurance. It seems Caleb could see the horses and chariots of fire in the fashion of Elisha (2 Kings 6:16,17). However, the first group insisted saying there was no hope:
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
These men gave a bad report because they had put God out of the picture. So they were discouraged and discouraging. They could only contemplate defeat. The result was absolutely lamentable:
“So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night” (Num. 14:1).
The bad report discouraged nearly the whole congregation. So, what happened next? The answer is simple enough: It happened what always happens when people are despondent, i.e., they began to speak words of discouragement:
And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel” (Num. 14:2–5).
Happily, Joshua and Caleb had strengthened themselves in God and were prepared for the battle:
But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them” (Num. 14:6–9).
The following verse confirms what I have said earlier:
“And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel” (Num. 14:10).
As we can see, if God had not intervened they would have killed Joshua and Caleb—just to show what discouragement can do. In what follows we see what God thinks of discouragement:
Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they” (Num. 14:11,12).
After all the wonders God had done for them, the people were disbelieving His promises. What about us? Everybody can believe when the circumstances are favorable, but what about the times of overwhelming darkness? What happens when the events turn to black and remain starless for a very long time?
Brethren! Let us resist the bad reports brought about by the carnal mind. Let us stand on God’s word, firm and ready to conquer. Let us emulate the One of whom it is written:
“He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law” (Isaiah 42:4).
And let us remember the words of truth: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jer. 32:27).
If you think this post can help somebody else you can share it with the options presented bellow
