EN-COURAGED OR DIS-COURAGED
Ezra 10:4, “Arise; for this matter belongeth unto thee: we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.”
Have you ever had a secret project? Sometimes people keep their project a secret because it’s a surprise or because their leader told them to keep it a secret. When I have a secret project, it’s a secret because I always manage to get discouraged from doing it. While I was editing my first book, I had a few people discourage me so much that I had actually decided to shelve it. My dad knew I was working on it and asked me if it was ready yet. I told him what had happened, and he told me the words I’ve come to live by: “When God tells you to do something, you do it no matter who or what tells you to stop.” Because of that, when I started the next book, I only told him and the proofer of its existence until it was completed because I didn’t want to get discouraged.
It’s SUPER easy to get discouraged in life, but especially when it comes to the things of God. One second we are doing the best we’ve ever done, and the next thing we know, something is said or done that discourages us greatly. The problem is that if we live in that discouragement, Satan will have an easy time of taking us out of God’s work. While every person will get discouraged, the key is to only visit instead of live there. So how do we overcome discouragement?
Several times in Scripture, God uses some form of the phrase, “be of good courage.” To have courage means to overcome the fear that is within to do something more than we normally would. That’s a hard task, let alone when we have outside sources discouraging us. That means if we are to overcome not just ourselves but the outside sources, we must encourage to get there. Now, I know you are immediately thinking that to encourage is an action that goes out to other people, but I Samuel 30:6 shows us that it can go inwardly as well by saying, “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
In order to encourage ourselves, we must first understand the word. The prefix en- means to cause to be. Pair that prefix with the word courage, and we get the meaning “to cause to be courageous.” Then we apply the rest of the verse to it. David had to encourage himself in God to overcome his discouragement. That means to en-courage ourselves, we must look to God to help us overcome. God can help us overcome in the small or the big moments. We just have to run to Him.
Don’t get dis-couraged because that’s all Satan wants us to be. Satan’s greatest desire is to keep us away from the highest mountains so that we stay in the lowest valleys. Decide today to en-courage yourself by trusting God to help you overcome so you can reach your highest mountain!
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