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The Dangers of Discouragement-Part 1
Back in the spring of this year I was preaching a revival meeting in Warner Robins, GA and God led me to preach two nights on this subject. Considering the widespread problem of discouragement that we see in our churches, I want to take a couple of months and share this thought on the web site in the hope that it will be a help to you if like most of us, you find yourself discouraged at times.
Discouragement is a major problem in our churches today. Preachers, families & even entire families get and quite often stay discouraged.
It may well be one of the devil’s biggest weapons he uses against us. He has used it to destroy and defeat many great men. He has used it to tear apart families and he has used it to render many churches and ministries completely ineffective.
We all, at times, will find ourselves discouraged. If we stay discouraged we are totally useless to God.
Your witness becomes ineffective. After all, lost people are generally miserable whether they realize it or not. It is not too often when confronted by a discouraged Christian that they will say, "I need to get saved so that I can be miserable like you".
Your service will also be hindered. The last thing we need is a discouraged song leader, Sunday School teacher or preacher to suck the life right out of our church services.
For these reasons, discouragement is a serious problem, especially among the preacher brethren. Anytime you find a discouraged pastor you will in turn find a discouraged church. A discouraged church is not in a position to do anything for the Lord until the discouragement is dealt with.
In Numbers 21:4 you read this statement: "And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way".
Through the course of this article you will see 7 dangers of discouragement, so without any further ado or fanfare let’s begin to look at them.
When we get discouraged we often:
I. Pray the Wrong Prayer.
Consider first what Discouragement did to the prayer of Moses. Numbers 11: 10-15 reads as follows- “10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. 11 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? 12 Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? 13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness".
Moses was a great leader. I have read secular historians that call him the greatest leader that ever lived. But he had his hands full with the nation of Israel. As many leaders, most notably pastors, everything was his fault. In Exodus 14 Moses is leading the Israelites out of Egypt after 430 years of captivity when they come up against the red sea with 600 chariots behind them. Guess who’s fault it was? They blamed Moses: “And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11) Later on when they had no water and no food it was Moses’ fault. Under the load of all of this Moses got discouraged. In the passage above you will notice the results of that discouragement.
Notice that verse 11 starts out “And Moses said unto the the LORD…” So we have Moses praying, which is a good thing but notice that his discouragement has effected his prayer. So much so that when you get down to verse 15 Moses asks God to kill him. This is so far out of character for him, how did he get to this place, How could brash, bold, brave Moses find himself in this place? The answer is one word, Discouragement.
Elijah was another great man of God. I the middle of his conflict with Jezebel he wound up in the same place as Moses, under a juniper tree asking God to kill him (I Kings 19:1-4) What a far cry from the Elijah who mocked the prophets of Baal in the previous chapter or who smote the water with his mantle in II Kings 2. What happened to him? He Got discouraged and prayed wrong.
If Moses could do this and Elijah could do this then I assure you that You and I are in danger of it as well. When you find yourself discouraged be careful how you pray.
Next month we will jump right in and tackle several more dangers of discouragement
Until then,
David Iseminger