Simple Rules when You are Discouraged: by AW Tozer

 

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." Isaiah 12:2

Christian men and women should be aware that there is a danger in a defeated spirit within us, for it can plunge us into discouragement.

Discouragement, by the way, is hardly a sin.  However, it can lead to any number of sins, for to discourage is to dishearten. In such a case we may still go to church but have little appetite for it.  Nothing means anything. Even the hymns and choruses are dull and tasteless and the sermon is a bore.

I want to give you some rules for the time of discouragement:

 

1. One thing you may want to do first is: NEVER accept the judgment of your own heart about the matter. A discouraged heart will always go astray, so do not think about yourself the way you feel about yourself. Instead, go to Christ, and more often than not, he will tell you like he did Gideon who was discouraged, “Get up, thou mighty man of God.”

 

2. Secondly is:  Make no important decisions while you are discouraged.  DON’T resign your job.  DON’T sell your property.  DO ask God to remove defeat out of your spirit and TRUST Him again. GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES.  HE IS THE GOD OF AS MANY CHANCES AS YOU NEED, JUST CALL ON HIM.

 

3. Thirdly, get your Bible from its dusty space, wipe if off, and read about the promises of God for all of us. Claim His promises, and remember this: THE LIVING GOD IS EVERYTHING. OUR VICTORIES CANNOT ENRICH HIM AND OUR DEFEATS CANNOT IMPOVERISH HIM.  Live in the brightness of his love and promises, not in the darkness that is away from Him.  

THE SEED - A Grain of Wheat: by Andrew Murray

 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides by itself alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit. He that loveth his life loses it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. John 12:24-25

All nature is the parable of how the losing of a life can be the way of securing a truer and a higher life. Every grain of wheat, every seed throughout the world, teaches the lesson that through death lies the path to beautiful and fruitful life.

It was so with the Son of God. He had to pass through death in all its bitterness and suffering before He could rise to heaven and impart His life to His redeemed people. And here, under the shadow of the approaching cross, He called His disciples: “If any man will serve Me, let him follow Me.” (See Matthew 16:24.) He repeated the words: “He that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

One might have thought that Christ did not need to lose His holy life before He could find it again. But so it was: God had “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), and He yielded to the inexorable law that through death comes life and fruit.

How much more should we, in the consciousness of that evil nature and the death that we inherited in Adam, be most grateful that there is a way open to us by which, in the fellowship of Christ and His cross, we can die to this accursed self! With what gratitude we should listen to the call to bear our cross, to yield our “old man” (Romans 6:6) as crucified with Christ daily to the death that he deserves! Surely the thought that the power of eternal life is working in us ought to make us willing and glad to die the death that brings us into the fellowship and the power of life in a risen Christ.

Unfortunately, this is rarely understood. Let us believe that what is impossible to man is possible to God. (See Matthew 19:26.) Let us believe that the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Risen Lord, can indeed make His death and His life the daily experience of our souls.

Be Still & Know: from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

 

Luke 12:22-26
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁶ If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Demonstrate your trust in Me by sitting quietly in My Presence. Put aside all that is waiting to be done, and refuse to worry about anything. This sacred time together strengthens you and prepares you to face whatever the day will bring. By waiting with Me before you begin the day's activities, you proclaim the reality of My Living Presence. This act of faith--waiting before working--is noted in the spirit world, where your demonstration of trust weakens principalities and powers of darkness.
     The most effective way to resist evil is to draw near Me. When you need to take action, I will guide you clearly through My Spirit and My Word. The world is so complex and overstimulating that you can easily lose your sense of direction. Doing countless unnecessary activities will dissipate your energy. When you spend time with Me, I restore your sense of direction. As you look to Me for guidance, I enable you to do less but accomplish more. 

Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your work to the Lord,
    and your plans will be established.

Redeeming the Time: by Henry Blackaby

 

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.       Ephesians 5:15-16

These days we are bombarded with opportunities that entice us to invest our time and energy. Each day the voices of urgency cry out for every available moment. So many causes promise that time spent on them will reap great rewards; how can we recognize God’s voice among so many competing voices?

A fool makes unwise choices with his time. With every new opportunity that comes along, the fool chases off in a different direction, not questioning whether that is the best choice. The loudest voice gains his attention. At some point the fool discovers to his dismay that he has squandered the investment of his time.

The days in which you live are evil. Marriages are under tremendous pressure, families are disintegrating. Multitudes are dying each year without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Investing your life wisely is critical to you and to those around you. Foolishly spending your time in sinful or wasteful pursuits can cost you and others dearly.

Often, it is not evil pursuits that rob your time. Rather, the temptation is to sacrifice what is best for what is good. The enemy knows that blatantly tempting you with evil will be obvious, so he will lure you with distractions, leaving you no time to carry out God’s will. He will tempt you to so fill your schedule with good things that you have no time for God’s best. You may inadvertently substitute religious activity for God’s will, pursuing your own goals for God’s kingdom instead of waiting for His assignment. Time is a precious commodity. Be sure to invest it wisely.

Christ-Awareness: by Oswald Chambers

 

…and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.

A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest— the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.

Self-Awareness: by Oswald Chambers

 

Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28

God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.

Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me….” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.

Hungry & Thirsting: by Henry Blackaby

 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.”

Matthew 5:6

Hunger and thirst are the body’s way of telling us that we are “empty.” Our natural response to physical hunger and thirst is to seek food and water to satisfy our need. Each Christian has an inner longing that only Christ’s righteousness can satisfy. But we cannot be filled with righteousness if we are filled with self.

Throughout the Scriptures God emphasizes that the one who longs for Him with all his heart will find Him (Jer. 29:13). As we crave righteousness, we will repent of our sin, and God will remove it from us. Our selfishness will be replaced by the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). The Spirit will make us to be like Christ.

Righteousness is not to be taken lightly, nor is it easily attained. Holy God does not give His righteousness to people indiscriminately. He gives it to those who know they cannot live without it. Our desire for personal righteousness must be powerful, all-consuming, dominating everything we do. Pursuing righteousness means that we value the opinion of God far more than we treasure the opinions of people.

Righteousness is not merely an absence of sin. It is allowing God to fill us with His holiness (Rom. 6:11). It is being like Christ. Jesus is our model of One who sought God’s righteousness first, and then the Father glorified Him. We are not only to seek the kingdom of God, but we are also to pursue His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). If we will hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be satisfied!