The Opposite Is True

Have you ever been so tired, worn out, broken down, frustrated, hopeless and discouraged that you feel like you can’t even make it through the day and dread facing tomorrow? Do you feel like you are completely spent and totally done? Discouragement and disappointment both come our way to throw us off track and make us want to give up. Both of these things work hand in hand and Satan will use it against us all the time. Discouragement wants to knock us down and shut us up! It wants to keep is down so that we will not shine our light of truth in a dark world full of deceit and lies.

I have struggled to write in this blog for a couple of weeks because honestly I have felt very discouraged. Some of my life’s circumstances left me feeling very vulnerable which gave Satan a opportunity to creep alongside of me and say, “See the Good Shepherd is not interested in you. He really doesn’t care.” Then the discouragement came bringing its companion fear. Since fear is the opposite of faith and hope, it is designed to discourage the soul and deflate the spirit. The enemy of my soul had deflated me.

Now I am deflated, disappointed, and feel like I just want to quit. My situations are starting to seem Unmanageable, Unreasonable, Unbearable, and Unfair. Inside I feel myself saying “Good Shepherd, I just can’t take it any more. When I am frustrated, annoyed, or even angry my inner voice starts shouting so loud that it confuses my logical mind. My logical mind knows Satan’s target is my mind and his weapons are lies and a subtle use of misinformation, but in my discouragement I forget he is a crafty enemy and he knows just what it takes to destroy my hopes, happiness and my need for the Good Shepherd. He was strangling my faith and my joy was diminishing.

I remember reading a story where Satan once held a sale and offered all the tools of his trade to anyone who would pay the price.  They were spread out on the table and each one was labeled – hatred, malice, envy, gossip, and lust – all the weapons that everyone knows so well.  However, off to one side lay a harmless looking instrument labeled DISCOURAGEMENT.  It was old and worn looking but was priced far above the rest.  When Satan was asked why this was, he replied, “Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others.  No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are bolted tightly against the others.  Once I get inside, I can use any tool that suits me best.”

There are several accounts in the Bible were Satan used his tool of discouragement very effectively. There are many sad stories about people who lost heart and gave up. David made a decision based upon emotional discouragement. He was down and out. He felt that he was about to be killed. There's no indication in the Bible that God would allow Saul to kill him. But the young man who killed the giant now found a giant within his own heart. Worry and anxiety flooded his soul. He felt helpless and hopeless. 1 Samuel 23:14(NLT) David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him. 1 Samuel 27:1(NLT) But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in the Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.”

Discouragement says “the world is not fair” and leaves out “the Good Shepherd is good”. It leads to doubting and talks a lot of non-sense. It destroys faith and it leads to complaining, murmuring, and a life of sour grapes and total defeat. Satan was using discouragement to crush my heart’s hope in the Good Shepherd. My eyes were not fixed on Him and I was letting the choices of others drag me down. I had forgotten that He  sees everything and His perspective is the only one I can really trust! I was forgetting the opposite is true: 

When Satan says “your witness is a joke. No one even notices or cares” (really means) “You are like a blinding light in peoples faces. How can I possible get you to turn that off?”

“Okay, so you’ve impacted a handful of people, but that’s it”. (really means) “The Good Shepherd is using you to take apart some of my greatest strongholds and I have to stop you!”

Galatians 6:9(NLT) says: So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. But sometimes I do get tired of doing what is right and I do feel like giving up! But quitting can never be an option. If we lay our weapons down, we just become an easier target for Satan. He will keep attacking until he has robbed us of our faith to believe in the goodness of the Good Shepherd. By listening to Satan’s lies and becoming discouraged are we putting ourselves on the side of Satan against the Good Shepherd? When we give into discouragement are we telling the Good Shepherd we do not believe in His word?

When I am discouraged the Good Shepherd cannot use me, because He uses people of faith. In my discouragement I am saying “it just can’t be done” and that is the exact opposite of saying “I know the Good Shepherd can do it because he has said…” He needs me to get back up, stand straight, and face the enemy. He wants me to rise up and know who He is! He wants me to know that this season will pass and His joy will come in the morning. He wants me to shake the dust off and get back to work! When a sculptor is trying to sculpt a masterpiece, the first time the hammer hits the chisel everything is not going to fall off into a beautiful sculpture. The Good Shepherd it still chipping away at me and that is the way life is.

What form of discouragement are you struggling with? What depressing conclusions does Satan keep trying to form in your brain? We need to remember what a consistent liar he is. To understand what is really going on, you must learn to turn everything he says around…the opposite is true.

At the end of my life all that will matter is I pleased the Good Shepherd when I was here on earth. All He really cares about is how I respond to Him in my soul. Did I sincerely want Him to have his way with me. Did I make him feel honored, exalted, and blessed by the way my soul treated Him?

Satan is going to constantly tell me that really pleasing the Good Shepherd is a difficult thing that requires much straining and striving to achieve. But the truth is the Good Shepherd places great success well within the reach of every soul He created. All He requests is that we fully submit to Him in life

I want to keep my eyes on the Good Shepherd and Him alone. I want to listen to His voice, seek His heart, and follow His indistinct encouragement in all things. Remember you are never a failure until you quit. Resist discouragement and finish the race the Good Shepherd has set before you!