OVERCOMING DISCOURAGEMENT
Sometimes it feels like every time I turn around, I’m getting “punched in the face by life” and miserable circumstances. Perhaps you’ve felt this way yourself.
Honestly, there are times I just want to quit. I get so tired of getting “punched in the face by life.” I get weary of the troubles and garbage of life. The discouragement feels overwhelming.
Here are a few examples to illustrate exactly what I mean. This series of events took place in successive order for months. Our microwave broke. The next day the garage door broke. Later that same day my only recliner broke. The next day my arm was hurt so bad I could barely move it for 7 days. It kept me up much of those nights in pain. Shortly after, my oldest daughter came over to tell us she had just miscarried her first child, my first grandchild. A few days later, the transmission went out on our van, costing $2,000. Over the next several weeks, I had 4 flat tires in a row! My son and I were almost in a terrible accident and had to drive into a ditch full of snow to avoid it. My wife and daughter were in an accident in the parking lot of a doctors office because some jerk suddenly pulled out in front of them. It pinched a nerve in my daughter’s neck, causing severe pain to her head, neck, arm, and back, on top of her continuing, severe, 3 year illness! I drove my car to preach at our evening church service and a massive rain storm came during the service, flooding the street where my car was parked. The street drain was clogged, and as a result, flooded my car and ruined it. A total loss—insurance would not cover any of it. Then our furnace, water heater, and AC all broke at the same time, and all needed to be replaced, they were unrepairable! After finding a different car to replace the one that was flooded, I drove to speak at a conference in Des Moines, Iowa. After speaking that night, I drove to see my mother, when suddenly a full grown deer jumped out in front of my car while I was going 65 mph on the highway. It ruined my car—again, a total loss—smashed my face, put a huge rash on my face, and made half my face swell up. I had to call my wife at midnight, who was home caring for our very sick daughter, to tell her I just almost got killed in this accident. Several days after I get home, the power steering goes out on our van, needing a very costly repair. Some time later, a water pipe leaks in my son’s room and ruins the ceiling. All during this time, my daughter was extremely sick. We had one massive trial after another with hospitals, doctors, and expensive bills to pay. On top of all that, I was suddenly dealing with the gut-wrenching betrayal by three different leaders whom I had spent years loving, and investing my life in, to help them achieve their desire for ministry. All during this time, my wife was dealing with significant, ongoing health and pain issues, that continue till this very day.
This is just a sampling of the overwhelming, discouraging circumstances in my life that have occurred. At times, it honestly felt like it would kill me—that I’d just be crushed under the weight of it all. It has often felt as if some invisible force is trying to kill and destroy me.
Then there’s the last 7 years! Holy smoke!
So, when I say many times it feels like “life is punching me in the face” and I want to quit, now you know what I mean.
I realize many of you are facing some of your own daunting circumstances and painful troubles.
It is my genuine desire to help you. Allow me to share with you how I overcome my own overwhelming discouragement.
I truly believe, with every fiber of my being, that God is my only hope for survival. I believe completely in the powerful reality of God and His unwavering desire to help me, even if it looks and feels like the exact opposite. I hide myself in the fortress that is God.
I tell my troubles to God in graphic detail. With tears, emotion, rage, frustration, anguish, or pain—whatever I’m feeling, I hold nothing back. If I keep it inside, it eats away at me and destroys me. I pour it out on God or I’d crash and burn.
I remind myself over and over again—God is for me. God is my strong ally, not my enemy. Nothing in all the world can separate me from God’s love and His infinite concern for my life and my welfare.
The sympathy, empathy, and comfort of God means everything to me. His compassionate understanding of my struggles and difficulties is a precious and treasured gift to me.
I am desperate, I mean, really desperate for God’s help every day of my life. I honestly SEEK HIM AND PRAY like my very life depends on it, because IT DOES! If I don’t, life and all its troubles would easily overwhelm me, and I would give up.
I believe God can rescue me. To bolster and strengthen my faith, I keep a written record of the many times He has rescued me before, and the miraculous answers He has performed. I recount them often. If not, like anyone else, I forget and my heart grows very weary. I refuse to let myself forget.
I regularly recalibrate my expectations of life, reminding myself of Jesus’ words—“Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”
I remind myself of a truth God revealed to me many years ago—God won’t shield us from all pain and suffering in the Christian life. Just as He didn’t for Christ. Pain, sorrow, and suffering are the “nature of the business of God on earth.” But, He promises to give us all the grace and strength we need to face and endure this life.
I remind myself that God uses troubles and great difficulties to mold and shape me into something greater for His Glory and divine, eternal purposes. I am what I am today because of all the pain, sorrow, and suffering He has allowed in my life.
I hold on to Bible stories of saints of old, and hold tightly to scriptural truth and the promises of God. They give me unique perspectives, real genuine hope, and enduring power in the midst of my heartache and pain. They are a treasure to me.
This may sound crazy to you, morbid even, but at 69 I won’t be much longer on this planet in terms of years, and soon I will be with the Lord! All pain, sorrow, suffering, trouble, injustice, and heartache will all be over, and I will never be “punched in the face by life” ever again.
There is eternal wealth and incredible riches waiting for me in Heaven for all this “punching in the face by life” I have endured. God keeps track of it all. It will all be richly rewarded by God, forever.
I call to mind God’s amazing promise that He will somehow, someway, work all this trouble out for my ultimate good.
I practice recounting the many blessings in my life. Like a person scrolling through their phone looking at all their pictures, reviewing special memories and moments, I scroll through my own mental picture of God’s many blessings to me, thanking him for them, and keeping a written record to remember!
I visualize the incredible future God has promised me. The New Earth and the New Heaven where I will live forever in my new, indestructible, pain-free body! I remind myself that Jesus is coming back, and He will bring His divine retribution and justice on those who have done so much evil and damage to me and others. Justice is coming!!
All of these things are the vital “practices of my faith.” Without them I would wither and fade away.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
