Why should I feel discouraged?

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Ever felt discouraged, without hope and no sense of direction? Welcome to the club.

Psalm 42 says 'Why, I ask myself, are you so depressed? Why are you so upset inside? Hope in God! Because I will again give him thanks, my saving presence and my God.' (‭Psalms‬ ‭42‬:‭5‬ CEB)

There are several reasons why as Christians we may feel discouraged. We may have lost a loved one, scored badly on an important exam or made a bad decision resulting in loss. Let me be real with you, even watching the news these days can be quite discouraging. Whatever the case, we can identify with the feeling. David did too and he certainly didn't hide this emotion but like Job, openly expressed his feelings before God.

In verse three of psalms 42, David mentioned he had been crying for days on end to the extent that he had no energy left as he refrained from eating. He was even being tormented with thoughts of what people had previously said in that they questioned the reality of his beliefs.

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Does this sound familiar?

Life gives you the option of being depressed, upset and at times bitter. But let's examine what David said in the latter part of verse 5. He said 'Hope in God! Because I will again give him thanks, my saving presence and my God.'

Why did he say this? I believe it's because he had an assurance based on his past experiences in his relationship with God. He knew that he'd come out of this situation because God was with him. That's what brought him out of the situation.

With this in mind, I thought of things that I do that help me when I'm discouraged.

1. I'll be honest with God about my feelings

2. I'll calm down and not let emotions rule my thoughts

3. I make my feelings accountable to another person

4. I'll be silent to hear from God as I believe he's heard me

5. I'll be vigilant to understand what He's trying to teach me.

6.  Ultimately, I'll keep moving forward as there's no benefit to my progress if I remain stagnant.

Last thoughts: What we must always strive to maintain is our relationship and enhance the knowledge we have with Him, through the word of God. Then when discouragement surfaces we'll be able to deal with it.

Today I'm reminding you and myself that if His eyes is on the sparrow, then He's surely watching over us.

Rubologs

The thief of joy

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Comparison is the thief of joy-Theodore Roosevelt

Sometimes we compare ourselves so much to other people that we forget the great things that God has bestowed on us which in turn halts us from doing the things He wants us to. This happened to me for 2 months.

It's an internal battle. A battle that occurs in the mind, translates to speech and eventually becomes your character. I find it quite ironic that during this time, I read the 'The battlefield of the mind' by Joyce Meyer. I think reading this book helped me to restructure my thought pattern to a great extent and has helped me to even identify the way in which the enemy primarily works against our minds. I certainly recommend it. However, you can read all the books you want to and gain as much information as possible but nothing will change until you do internally.

I'll confess that, I didn't realise I was in this phase until I stopped certain things that God specifically put in my hands to do. For example, this very blog. I know it's a work in progress but I so compared myself to others that I eventually convinced myself that I couldn't do anything with it or that it wouldn't go far. May I mention that this however, did not stop the flow of ideas regarding my blog posts. I thought about it everyday!

As I mentioned before, my character was affected. I reduced my calls, texts and general posts that made me, me. I became inferior to people that genuinely loved me and I was downright negative about everything. The funny thing is no one particularly noticed this because as I said, it was an internal thing and I hid it quite well.

Eventually I became quite unhappy and demotivated to do anything and if I'm honest with you, I cannot recall how I got to this stage. I'm only grateful that I'm progressively coming out of this! One way I'm recovering so to speak, is by reminding myself of who I am in Christ and remembering the love He has for me that He displayed on the cross. It's easy to forget so that's why God told Joshua ''This book of the law must not depart from your  mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. Then you shall make your way prosperous and then you will have good success." Joshua 1:8 (NKJV) Yes, to have good success in our minds means to be stable and positive.

Let's be clear, this isn't a blog post to declare and announce some epic return but rather an encouragement and caution against comparison.

There's a reason why you are who you are, bestowed with the gifts and talents that you have. Others may be in your field and this is for many reasons including the fact that you can't reach everyone by yourself. So "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." 2 Corinthians 10:12 (NIV). I compared myself with others, became foolish and look where it landed me! Avoid doing the same.

Last thought: If you compare yourself with another person, you're indirectly telling God that He didn't do a good job.

Until we meet again, be yourself!
Rubo

Keep an eye out for my next post on discouragement.