Discouragement Part One

Day three hundred twenty three

Yesterday on the radio the DJ asked his guest what was the one thing that was really standing out to him about his relationship with God.  I was impressed that there was no hesitation before the reply.  His guest speaker said, "God's love."  It was obvious that he had put some thought into this question even before he had been asked.  This guy had spent some time thinking about his relationship with God.  How would I have answered that question?  Would I have hesitated?  It made me stop and really think about where I am at in my relationship with God.

That is what I prayed about this morning.  I let Him know that I am thinking about Him and what He is doing in my life.  I think I would have answered the question, "Seeing God active in my life."  He is busy working on me and I am much more aware of it lately. I can't speak for God, but I know I felt closer to Him after my prayer.  It was a good way to start the day.

Nehemiah 4

Discouragement seems to be a common theme in the scriptures.  In chapter 4 of Nehemiah we will see the worker's go from "the people had a mind to work" (v 6) to "we cannot rebuild the wall" (v 10).  Everything seemed to be going so well, what happened that would make such a change in their perspective? 

The workers will face both external and internal causes for their discouragement.  And like the flu or the common cold, discouragement is an epidemic. At least three things make it such a potent problem.

· It’s universal. None of us are immune to discouragement. Everyone you have ever known has been discouraged at one time or another.

· It’s recurring. Being discouraged once does not give you an immunity to the disease. You can be discouraged over and over again. In fact, you can even be discouraged by the fact that you are discouraged a lot.

· It’s highly contagious. Discouragement spreads by even casual contact. People can become disheartened because you are discouraged. You can be bummed out because other people are discouraged.

Knowing that this is such a potential problem I thought it was worthy of a little more research.  I started with the external causes for their discouragement.

External Causes

Ridicule. We see this in verses 1-2: “..when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews."

This is the third time in the book that we come across Sanballat, who was Nehemiah’s biggest opposition. Every time we read about him he is standing against the work of God, rejecting and ridiculing everything that Nehemiah is trying to accomplish. It has been said that ridicule is the “language of the devil” and "those who can stand bravely when shot at will collapse when they are laughed at." The enemy often insults the servants of God. Goliath ridiculed David when the shepherd boy met the giant with only a sling in his hand ( 1 Sam 17:41-47). The soldiers mocked Jesus during his trial and the crowd taunted Him while he was hanging on the cross (Luke 22:63-65; 23:35-37).

Here in chapter 4, Sanballat is making a speech before the army of Samaria, intensifying the power of ridicule.  Notice that he called the workers “feeble” (v 2).  Next he ridiculed the job they were doing by asking four taunting questions: “Will they restore their wall?” That must have made the Samaritan army break out into laughter. How could a remnant of feeble Jews hope to build a wall strong enough to protect the city from a mighty army? “Will they offer sacrifices?” Sanballat is saying that it will take more than prayer and worship to rebuild the city. “Will they finish in a day?” suggests that the workers had no idea how difficult the task was and would soon stop what they were doing. “Can they bring these stones back to life?” indicates that their building materials were so old and damaged that they couldn’t possibly be used to make a strong wall.

Does this sound familiar to you, the enemy placing doubts through ridicule? It's an old tactic that works; Satan is not going to stop as long as it works.  The fact is, whenever we attempt to get involved in the work of God, we will always face ridicule. Expect it and don’t stop working.

Repression.  In verses 7-8 the enemies have moved from being bothered by the Jews to being very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. The workers were surrounded and lived in constant fear of being ambushed.

"God’s people sometimes have difficulty working together, but the people of the world have no problem uniting in opposition to the work of the Lord.” ~ Warren Wiersbe

In many parts of the world Christians still live in fear of being persecuted for their beliefs.  We read in the paper about attacks made on Christian churches with gunshots or bombs.  Or missionaries in countries where they are bound by so many rules that they feel less effective because they are afraid that a mistake would put them in jail. It would be difficult to not be discouraged in situations like this.

Internal Causes

"Pressures from without often create problems within. Opposition outside the ranks can lead to depression on the inside. It wasn’t the voice of the enemy that was the most pervasive; it was the voice of God’s own people. And, just like today, it’s so easy to internalize the words of the enemy and feel like giving up." ~Brian Bill

Notice the first part of verse 10: “And Judah said…” Discouragement started first within the royal tribe of Judah. They were looked upon as leaders and pacesetters. If the tribe of Judah was bummed out, then the other tribes would be more inclined to give up the project as well.

Fatigue. Verse 10 reads, “And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed." Simply put, the workers were tired. They were hitting it hard and needed some rest.

When you are physically drained, it is very easy to become discouraged at the slightest problem. Many times when we start a new project the first half goes quickly because we’re excited about accomplishing the goal. But, when the newness wears off and the work becomes routine and boring, then it’s easy to become fatigued. And when you’re tired it’s easy to become discouraged and to begin to think that you will never finish the job. Verse 10 says: “…we cannot rebuild the wall.” They were ready to throw in the towel. These are the same people who were described in verse 6 as those who "had a mind to work."

When we are tired we need to be careful that we don't fall into discouragement.  Remember what God did when Elijah was tired – he sent an angel to give him some bread and something to drink and then told him to go back to sleep. You cannot burn the candle at both ends on a long-term basis. Sometimes the most spiritual thing to do is to go to bed.

Frustrated. Verse 10 continues by saying that “there is much rubbish” that they cannot rebuild the wall. They became discouraged because they were so aggravated with the situation. I’m sure they were encountering old broken rocks, dirt and dried-out mortar, and other debris that was underfoot. This junk was everywhere. And it was frustrating.

It seems they lost sight of their goal. We can lose sight of our goal when we have too much garbage in our lives too. Whatever our rubbish is we are counseled to get rid of it:

"... let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1)

Fear. The enemies of the Lord’s work had struck fear in the hearts of God’s people and they felt like giving up. Remember what they said in verse 10: “We cannot rebuild the wall.”

Did you notice in verse 12 who gets afraid the quickest? “And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you.”  

Those most affected by fear are those who lived near pessimistic people. If you want to limit the depressing thoughts that bring fear into your life, then it’s best to not hang around with negative people. It’s like the old saying, “If you’re going to soar with the eagles, you can’t run around with turkeys.”

I learned some interesting statistics about fear during my research:

· 60% of our fears are totally unfounded

· 20% are already behind us

· 10% are so petty they don’t make any difference

· 5% are real, but we can’t do anything about them

· 5% are real, and we can do something about them

(Scared to Life, Douglas Rumford, Marriage Partnership, Vol. 12, no. 2)

Isn't it interesting that we get in such a state of discouragement over the 60% of our fears that are totally unfounded, when in reality there are only 5% of our fears that really matter?  How much more productive we could be if we kept this perspective!

It took the whole post today to focus on the causes of discouragement.  There was a lot of information I wanted to share, but the post would have been way too long.  I tried to give enough information to tie what was happening to Jerusalem to our lives today. I hope it was enough.

I hope to share what I have learned about how to fight the epidemic of discouragement tomorrow. With people in my life that suffer from discouragement and depression I'm always looking for a cure!