When you’re beyond discouraged

There are times when I give up; when I’m overwhelmed mentally, emotionally and spiritually. These are times when I’m often physically depleted, time poor, and there is a plethora of frustration.

But frustration is merely a symptom. Exhaustion is more the cause. And discouragement is the effect. It takes me to the absolute end of myself. It’s a scary place to be.

When I’m beyond discouraged, and that means I’m actually depressed, even if it’s the accumulation of one day’s series of hindrances, I’ve found I must remind myself that, “This, too, shall pass.”

Inevitably, what occurs is there’s 24-hours of spiritual attack associated with life circumstances I cannot dissociate from, and then what arrives is a sweet reprieve — where God’s mercies are indeed very new of the morning! (See Lamentations 3:22-24)

But when I’m discouraged, I’m unbearable to live with. Any energy I do have I divert into irrationalities of the diabolical. Sure, I’m a feeler, but when I’m in a good frame of mind, I relate more as a thinker. But overall, I’m a feeler. I feel my own emotions heavily and I tend to feel others the same way, perhaps a little less so.

When we’re beyond discouragement, we must recognise that hope is essential.

To feel at peace again, to exemplify joy, there must be hope. We turn from the discouraging circumstances through our imagination to a reality on the horizon. It must be borrowed.

As we turn in, getting a rest from the exhausting situation we find ourselves in, we face with honesty how we truly feel. Sometimes we need to sob. We may need to howl. But we wail before God. We pray in brutal honesty, believing that whatever words come from our mouth are our therapy before the Lord who already knows.

In praying with tears, with lament so unbearable we cannot think, we acknowledge before the Lord who already knows what only the Lord may teach us.

It is a beautiful prayer. Because it is honest. Contrition is the mode of this kind of prayer, even if we were angry. And the psalms remind us how important imprecatory prayers are, too. That is, would you believe, to invoke or call down a curse! Oh, yes, these are biblical — many from David! Good enough for David… good enough for you and I.

We must recognise the importance in honesty, in declaration, in contending — for the truth that the Lord already knows must be faced by ourselves. We must own how we truly feel.

When we’re discouraged, we need to recognise we’re in fine company.

Of course, we feel most alone when we’re most discouraged. The truth is we don’t know just how many people around us are feeling the same way. The trouble is, in this day as much as ever, we tend to value denial more than honesty. When we feel alone in our discouragement, we tend not to see others in their discouragement.

God loves it when we face the truth in the counsel of friends, for even in our discouragement we are an encouragement to others who are discouraged — if we have the courage to be real.

When we’re beyond discouraged, we’re gently being led to release our grip on what we cannot control.

Letting go can seem impossible, but it is what we need to do.

Most importantly, we need to remember we’re not alone.

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash