Discouragement

                    “For consider Him who endured such hostility from

                     sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and

                     discouraged in your souls.” (Hebrews 12:3)

  We all get discouraged. It seems to be a ‘fact of life’. We all feel like giving up and stopping, in a variety of areas in our lives. So…do we? Do we give in and give up? Or do we push through and push on? What makes us do one over the other? Most important… what keeps us keeping on? So the question becomes – what will motivate you to continue or will it be the opposite that leads you to succumb to discouragement?

  If pride is your motivator to keep on going, then it will fail you eventually. Everyone needs a stronger support to keep them focused. Other people may not be the answer either, since they have their own lives and plans and even if they would be willing, they may not always have the time, energy, or opportunity to be an active support. That’s true for family as well as friends. It’s not a sense of not being able to count on them, it may simply be not in your best interests. Involve them – yes, but place undue expectations on them – no.

  So what is our motivation to stop or to continue? Warning about frustration - it is a motivator but it is basically a seducer to give up. Many times it attempts to provide us with the ‘logic’ and/or ‘justification’ to abandon (fill in the blank). The answer is that when we experience discouragement we can use this state to provide us with understanding of where we are and what we should do next. It doesn’t always mean that we should quit. However, it may mean a change.

  Spiritually, when we ‘consider Him’ then our perspective will change. This gives us a model to ‘consider’. Discouragement is always an inward focus, consider Him is an outward focus. And when we look at His life, His mission, His behavior, and the way He approached it… can we still consider discouragement? Perhaps we are in a position to take a stand against or for (fill in the blank). The lesson is the model. If we look to Jesus as our model when discouragement, disappointment, et al occurs, we can gain a different potential perspective and mindset. We can use discouragement to give us reason to quit or we can use it to look at what is occurring and develop our ‘next’.