Chapter 13
Chapter 13
THE PROBLEM OF DISCOURAGEMENT
''The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way"—Numbers 21:4.
The Church abounds in people who are ''discouraged because of the way." Either inwardly or outwardly, and often both, things look all wrong.
There seems to be no hope of escape. Christians' souls faint within them, and their religious lives are full of discomfort and misery.
There is nothing that so paralyzes eflFort as discouragement. Nothing more continually and successfully invites defeat. The secret of failure or success in any matter lies far more in the soul's attitude than in any other cause. It is a law of our being that the inward man causes far more conflict than anything the outward man does or possesses.
Nowhere is this more true than in the spiritual life. The Bible declares from beginning to end that faith is the law of the spiritual life; and that according to our faith, it always will be done for us.
Faith and discouragement cannot exist
together. Therefore, it is obvious that discouragement is an absolute barrier to faith. Where discouragement rules, the converse to the law of faith must rule also.
It will be done to us not according to our faith, but according to our discouragement.
Just as courage is faith in good, so discouragement is faith in evil. While courage opens the door to good, discouragement opens it to evil.
The Source Of Discouragement Once upon a time, Satan desired to entrap a devoted Christian worker and called a council of his helpers to decide the best way of doing it. After the case was explained, an imp offered himself to do the work.
**How will you do it?" asked Satan.
'*Oh," replied the imp, **I will paint for him the delights and pleasures of a life of sin in such glowing colors that he will be eager to enter into it."
*That will not do," said Satan, shaking his head.
"The man has tried sin, and he knows better. He knows it leads to misery and ruin, and he will not listen to you."
Then another imp offered himself, and again Satan asked, *'What will you do to win the man over?"
**I will show him the trials and the self-denials of a righteous life, and he will be eager to escape from them."
*'Ah, that will not do either," said Satan, **for he
has tried righteousness, and he knows that its paths are paths of peace and happiness."
Then a third imp came up and declared that he was sure he could win the man over.
'*Why, what will you do," asked Satan, **that you are so sure?"
*'I will discourage his soul," replied the imp triumphantly.
'That will do, that will do!" exclaimed Satan.
''You will be successful. Go and bring back your victim."
There is an old Quaker saying, "All discouragement is from the devil."
I believe it states a far deeper truth than we fully understand. Discouragement cannot have its source in God. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ is a life of faith, good cheer, courage, and hope.
"Be discouraged," says our lower nature, "for the world is a place of temptation and sin."
"Be of good cheer," says Christ, "for I have overcome the world." There cannot possibly be any room for discouragement in a world which Christ has overcome.
In temporal things, perhaps, we have learned that discouragement is foolish and even wrong.
But when it comes to spiritual things, we are tempted to reverse our opinion and make it commendable. We even succeed in persuading ourselves that to be discouraged is a very humble state of mind.
The causes for our discouragement often seem
so legitimate. The first and perhaps most common of these causes is our own weaknesses.
It is right for us to be discouraged, we think, because we know that we are such poor, miserable, good-fornothing creatures.
It would be presumption, in the face of such incapacity, to be anything but discouraged.
No Excuses For God's People Moses had to overcome deep discouragement.
The Lord called him to lead the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Moses looked at his own natural infirmities and weaknesses and tried to excuse himself.
'*I am not eloquent.
. .but I am slowof speech, and of a slow tongue.
. .They will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice" (Exodus 4:10;1).
Naturally, one would think that Moses had plenty of reasons to be discouraged. We may be attacked in the same way that he was. We distrust our own eloquence or our own power to convince those to whom we are sent, so we shrink from the work which the Lord may be calling us to do.
But notice how the Lord answered Moses, for He answers us in the same way. God did not try to convince Moses that he really was eloquent or that his tongue was not slow of speech. He passed all this by, because it did not matter. There could not possibly be any reason for discouragement, even if Moses did have all the infirmities of speech that he had complained about.
**And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I, the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" (Exodus 4:1112).
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah telling him that God had ordained him to be a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah felt himself to be entirely unequal to such a work and said, ''Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child." But the Lord answered, "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord" 0eremiah 1:6-8).
The Story of Gideon gives us another illustration. The Lord called him to lead the deliverance of His people from the oppression of the Midianites. He said to Gideon, '*Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel, from the hands of the Midianites: have I not sent thee?" 0udges 6:14).
This should have been enough for Gideon. But he was a poor, unknown man. He had no apparent qualifications for such a great mission. Looking at himself and his own deficiencies, he naturally became discouraged and said, "Wherewith shall
I save Israel? behold my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges
6:15). Other men who had power and influence
might perhaps accomplish this great work, but not one so poor and insignificant as Gideon.
How familiar this conversation must sound to the victims of discouragement and how sensible and reasonable it seems. But what did the Lord think of it? **And the Lord said unto him, Surely
I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man" (Judges 6:16).
The Promise Of His Presence All that was given was the promise, **Surely I will be with thee." Not one word of encouragement did the Lord give Gideon concerning his capacity or fitness for the work required. He merely made the promise that is sufficient for all possible needs, *'I will be with thee."
To all words of discouragement in the Bible, this is the invariable answer:
**I will be with thee."
It is an answer that removed all reason for argument or any further discouragement.
**I, your Creator and Redeemer, I your strength and wisdom, I your omnipresent and omniscient God, I will be with you and will protect you through everything. No enemy will hurt you; no accusations of man will disturb you. My presence will be your safety and defense."
One would think that in the face of such assertions as these, not even the most faint-hearted among us ciould find any excuse for discouragement. But discouragement comes in many subtle
forms. Our spiritual enemies attack us in many disguises.
We are often our own worst enemy. Other people can be cheerful and courageous, we think. But we should be discouraged. We see how foolish, how helpless, how unfit to grapple with any enemies we are.
There would indeed be ample cause for discouragement if we had to fight our battles ourselves.
We would be right in thinking we could not do it.
But if the Lord is to fight them for us, it puts an entirely different light on the matter. Our lack of ability to fight becomes an advantage instead of a disadvantage. We can only be strong in Him when we are weak in ourselves. Our weakness, therefore, is our greatest strength.
A Lesson From Israel The children of Israel can give us a lesson here.
The Lord had delivered them out of Egypt and had brought them to the borders of the Promised Land.
Moses urged them to go up and possess it.
* 'Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged" (Deuteronomy 1:21).
But the circumstances were so discouraging.
They felt so helpless that they could not believe God would actually do all He had said. They murmured in their tents. They even declared that it must be because the Lord hated them that He
had brought them out of Egypt in order to deliver them into the hands of their enemies.
* 'Whither shall we go up? Our And they said, brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, the people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there" (Deuteronomy 1:28).
When we read the report of the spies, we cannot be surprised at their discouragement. We can even understand their feelings that courage under such circumstances would be only foolhardiness.
*The land through which we have gone to search it," the spies declared, **is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which comes of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight"
(Numbers 14:32-33).
Nothing could have seemed more humble than for them to look upon themselves as poor, goodfor-nothing grasshoppers. True humility would seem to teach that it would be the height of presumption for grasshoppers to try to conquer giants. We often feel that we also are merely grasshoppers in face of the giants of temptation and trouble that assail us. We think that we are justified in being discouraged. But the question is not whether we are grasshoppers, but whether God is
able to jfight for us.
It is not we who have to fight these giants, but it is God's battle.
In vain, Moses reminded the Israelites of this.
He assured them that they had no need to be afraid of the sons of the Anakims, for the Lord their God would fight for them. He reminded them of past deliverances. He even asked them if they did not remember how ''in the wilderness.
. the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went" (Deuteronomy 1.31).
But they were still too discouraged to believe.
And the result was that not one of that generation was allowed to see the Promised Land, except Caleb and Joshua. Only these two had steadfastly believed that God could and would lead them in.
These are the results of giving in to discouragement, and this is the reward of a steadfast faith.
Trusting God Boldly The apostle Paul commented on this story in his letter to the Hebrews. *'And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief ' (Hebrews 3:18-19).
Is there a parallel here to our own circumstances? Do we look at our weakness instead of looking at the Lord's strength? Have we sometimes become so discouraged that we sink into spiritual anguish? Do we reach the point where we cannot even listen to the Lord's own declaration that He will fight for us and give us the victory?
Our souls long to enter into the rest the Lord has promised. But fierce giants seem to stand in our path. We are afraid to believe. So we too, like the Israelites, cannot enter in because of unbelief.
How diflferent it would be if we had enough faith to say with the psalmist, ''Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
. .For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock"
(Psalm 27:3,5). How joyfully and triumphantly would we be able to enter into rest, if this was our language.
Another very subtle cause for discouragement is the fear of man. There seems to exist a group of people called ''they" who rule our lives with an iron hand of control. What will "they" say? What will "they" think? These are among the most frequent questions that harass the timid soul when it seeks to work for the Lord. At every turn, this allpowerful and forever-present "they" stands in our way to discourage us and make us afraid.
This form of discouragement often comes under the disguise of polite consideration for the opinions of others.
But it is especially dangerous because it exalts "they" into the place of God and esteems "their" opinions above His promises. The only remedy here, as in all other forms of discouragement, is simply to repeat the fact that God is with us.
**Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord"
(Jeremiah 1:8).
**For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say. The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:5-6). How can any heart, however timid, dare to indulge in discouragement in the face of such assertions as these?
There is one sort of discouragement that is very common. This is the discouragement that arises from our own failures.
It was from this sort of discouragement that the children of Israel suffered after their defeat at Ai. They had ''committed a trespass in the accursed thing"
(Joshua 7:1).
Therefore, they could not stand before their enemies. So great was their discouragement that it is said, ''Wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and all the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads" (Joshua 7:56).
When God's own people turn their backs before their enemies, one might think they should lie on their faces and put dust on their heads because they have brought dishonor upon His great name.
Discouragement and despair seem to be the only proper action after such failures.
But the Lord thought otherwise, for He said to Joshua, "Get thee up; wherefore liest thou upon thy face?" (Joshua 7:10). The proper thing to do
after a failure is not to give in to utter discouragement, humble as this may appear. Rather, face the evil at once and get rid of it. Then consecrate yourself again to the Lord, afresh and immediately.
**Up, sanctify yourselves" is always God's command.
**Lie down and be discouraged" is always our temptation.
The Holy Spirit's Role But should a sense of sin produced by the conviction of the Holy Spirit cause discouragement? If I see myself to be a sinner, how can I help being discouraged? The Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin in order to discourage us, but to encourage us. His work is to show us our sin, not that we may lie down in despair under its power, but that we may get rid of it.
A good mother points out the faults of her children for the purpose of helping them correct those faults. The convictions of the Holy Spirit are truly one of our greatest blessings. They do not mean that we are to give up in discouragement.
Rather, we are to be encouraged to believe that deliverance is coming.
The good housewife does not look for stains on her tablecloth in order that she may throw it aside as no longer fit for use. Instead, she cleans it so that she may use it again.
If she is a good laundress, she will not be discouraged by the worst of stains.
God says to us, 'Though your sins be as scarlet.
they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18). Pure unbelief on our part allows us to be discouraged at even the worst of our failures. God's cleansing must be at least as effective as the washing of any human laundress.
Fenelon says concerning this, '*It is of great importance to guard against discouragement on account of our faults. Discouragement is not a fruit of humilit>^ but of pride, and nothing can be worse.
It springs from a secret love of our own excellence. We are hurt at feeling what we are. If we become discouraged we are the more enfeebled, and from our reflections on our own imperfections, a chagrin arises that is often worse than the imperfection itself.
Poor nature longs from self love to behold itself perfect. It is vexed that it is not so.
It is impatient, haughty, and out of temper with itself and with everybody else. Sad state, as though the work of God could be accomplished by our ill-humour. As though the peace of God could be attained by our interior restlessness.'*
The Importance Of Speaking Right Discouragement, from whatever source it may come, produces many sad results. One of its very worst is that it leads people to murmur and to speak against God.
>XTien the children of Israel were discouraged because of the way, we are told that they ''spake against God" and asked all sort of God-dishonoring questions.
(See Numbers 21:45.)
The rebelling and murmuring thoughts that sometimes beset us always begin in discouragement.
Discouragement is a ''speaking against God." It implies some sort of a failure on His part to give us what His promises have led us to expect of Him.
The psalmist recognized this. He says, concerning the questions asked in the days of their wilderness wandering,
**Yea, they spake against God; they said. Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" (Psalm 78:19).
It appears that our questions concerning God's willingness to help us are more than humble inquiries. They may seem reasonable to us and even humble. In reality, we are "speaking against God." The questions are displeasing to Him, because they reveal the sad fact that we ''believe not in God, and trusted not in his salvation"
(Psalm 78:22).
Another grievous quality in discouragement is that it is contagious. The spies sent out by Moses brought up a bad report of the Promised Land and told of the giants there. They discouraged the hearts of their brethren so that the people lifted up their voices and cried. They refused to go into the land which the Lord had given them and which they had started out to possess. (See Numbers 13:27-33; 14:1-3)
The bad report that many Christians bring of their failures and their disappointments is the subject of many discouraging conversations. The
hearts of many young Christians are far too often discouraged by their older brethren. The older Christians have little idea of the harm they are doing by their sorrowful accounts of the trials of the Christian experience.
The Lord felt that it was important that no one should discourage another's heart. When Moses gave God's law to the Israelites concerning their methods of warfare, he said, **And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say,
What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's hean faint as well as his heart" (Deuteronomy 20:8).
Discouraged people should keep their discouragement to themselves. They should hide their feelings in the privacy of their own heart, lest they discourage the hearts of their brethren. We know that courage is contagious. One brave soul in a moment of danger can save a crowd from a panic.
But we often fail to remember that the opposite of this is also true. One faint-hearted man or woman can infect a whole crowd with fear.
Filled With Joy And Courage If the Body of Christ would remove all the hymns of discouragement from its hymn books and would allow only hymns of good cheer to be sung, the faith of Christians would be strengthened.
**Be of good cheer," is the command of the Lord for His disciples, **I have overcome the world.
(John 16:33). Therefore, there is nothing left for us to be discouraged about. If we understood what it means that Christ has overcome the world, we would be shocked at the idea of any one of His followers ever becoming discouraged again.
If you had been an Israelite in the days of Joshua, would you have been one of the spies who brought back an evil report of the land? Would you have discouraged the hearts of their brethren and brought upon them the dreary, forty years of wilderness wandering? Or would you have been like Caleb and Joshua, who **stilled the people before Moses, and said. Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it"
(Numbers 13:30)?
In the divine review of this episode, Moses spoke of Caleb as one who had wholly followed the Lord"
(Numbers 32:12).
This was because Caleb had given the Israelites a good report of their land. When his fellow spies had made the heart of the people to melt by their evil report,
Caleb had encouraged them to go up and possess the land.
Many truly devoted Christians fail in the essential point of wholly following the Lord. The principle mission of their lives appears to be discouraging the hearts of their brethren by the sorrowful reports they bring of the dijfficulties of the Christian life.
How different it would be if discouragement was looked upon in its true light as a **speaking
against God." What a blessing it would be if only encouraging words were heard among Christians.
How many times would the children of Israel have failed in conquering their enemies had there been no men of faith among them to encourage and cheer them. On the other hand, who can tell how many spiritual defeats and disasters that discouraging words may have brought about in your own life and in the lives of those around you?
One of Isaiah's prophecies begins with, '*Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."
Isaiah gives us a wonderful description of God as the reason for comfort. Then he sets forth what
God's people ought to be and says, 'They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil" (Isaiah
41:6-7).
Shall we follow their example and encourage one another?
Like so many other wrong spiritual habits, we must give discouragment up in order to get rid of it.
It is never worthwhile to argue against discouragment. There is only one argument that can meet it, and that is the argument of God.
David was in the midst of the most discouraging moments of his life. He found his city burned and his wives stolen. He and the men with him had wept until they had no more power to weep.
When his men, exasperated at their misfortunes, spoke of stoning him, we are told, ''But David
encouraged himself in the Lord his God"
(1 Samuel 30:6).
The result was a magniificent victory.
All that they had lost was more than restored to them. This will always be the result of a courageous faith, because faith lays hold of the omnipotence of God.
The psalmist asks himself this question, **Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?" And each time he answers himself with the argument of God.
*'Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psalm 42:1 1). He does not analyze his discouragement or try to argue it away. Rather, he turns at once to the Lord and by faith begins to praise Him.
This is the only way to overcome. Discouragement flies where faith appears. The opposite is also true-—faith flies when discouragement appears. We must choose between them, for they will not mix.