Second Thursday of Advent

Peace in Times of Discouragement

Read Genesis 40
A discouraged minister once dreamed that he was standing on top of a great granite rock, trying to break it with a pickaxe. Hour after hour he worked on with no result. At last he said; “It is useless; I will stop.”

Suddenly a man stood by him and asked, “Were you not allotted this task and if so, why are you going to abandon it?”
“My work is in vain; I can make no impression on the granite,” was the minister’s reply.

Then the stranger solemnly replied, “That is nothing to you; your duty is to pick, whether the rock yields or no. The work is yours, the results are in other hands; work on.”[i]

I know how it feels to be discouraged or frustrated.  I forget the God whom I serve “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”  In my despair and discouragement I lose focus on who is in charge.  Sometimes I even begin to feel like God has let me down.  

However, in our discouragement we can be reminded:

1. God is at work.  You may not see it.  You may not even believe it, but God is working.  Joseph may have felt alone and discouraged, but we know that God was preparing him for something big. 
   
2. God delights in giving his children good things.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7 – 11 that God will give good things to his children when they ask.  He will give the good things in his time.  I find myself praying to have the same mind that Paul had in his ministry, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11).
   
3. God wants me to draw near to Him.  We are told in James that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.  We need to be near to God in order to overcome discouragement.  It is hard to be discouraged when you are in the presence of the Almighty God.  The root to discouragement is being unsatisfied.  I believe fully that when we seek out God and delight in serving him, and seek to be satisfied in him, that it is then that we can truly have peace in our lives and have true contentment.

[i] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (337). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.