A man stopped to watch a Little League baseball game. He asked one of the youngsters what the score was. The answer was, “We’re losing 18-0.” “Well,” said the man, “You don’t look discouraged.” “Discouraged?” said the boy. “Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t come to bat yet.” Oh, the optimism of youth. Most of us would have packed up and gone home discouraged at a score of 10-0.
It’s not difficult to get discouraged. Someone has called discouragement the world’s deadliest disease. Discouragement is universal, every gets it, you do, I do, we all do. It’s common, you probably meet a discouraged person every day. Finally, discouragement is highly contagious. When you’re discouraged, other people can catch it from you. But the good news is that discouragement is curable. You can go from being discouraged to being encouraged.
To answer our first tough question “How Can I Handle Discouragement?” We’re going to be looking at a story from the life of Nehemiah. Most people read their Bible as simply a collection of stories of what happened thousands of years ago. The Bible is an accurate record of what happened long ago, but it is much more than that. Speaking of the OT, NLT 1 Corinthians 10:11 All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us. So when you read a story from the Old or New Testament, think about what kind of example the people in the story are. They might be a good example or a bad example. In each case, the story will teach us more about God and His plan for our lives.
In our story from Nehemiah, we’re going to discover 4 causes of discouragement and 3 steps in the cure for discouragement. God doesn’t want you discouraged, it’s not His will for your life. NLT Deuteronomy 31:8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD is the one who goes before you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor forsake you. God doesn’t want you to be afraid or discouraged. He has promised to go with you in life, to strengthen and encourage you. He wants to teach each of us how to handle discouragement.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my May 15, 2005 message entitled How Can I Handle Discouragment?
That introductory story was great! I just wrote a post on the same subject (5 Ways to Handle Discouragement ) and it was nice to see how another pastor approached the same subject.