Discouragement

by J. L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Category: Foes Of Our Faith | Dec 1970

This, of course, was no foe to faith's princely Leader, the Lord Jesus, of whom it was written, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged" (Isaiah 42.4). What a choice contemplation never failing, never discouraged! It was not as though the tide failed to flow swiftly against Him. He had enemies, defecting followers and unfaithful disciples. He was misunderstood and misrepresented. He was. finally repudiated and rejected. Yet at no point was He discouraged, remarkable thought! Inwrought into this was the fact that at no time was there any personal failure. His life was cast in the mould of His Father's will, and He unerringly completed, day by day, the work which had been given Him to do. So His serene mind was unaffected by daily adversities and in this joy His great strength lay.

But with us the position is quite different. We are so slow to take on the character of our Leader. Unlike Him, we fail, and because of this we become discouraged. Indeed this may well rank among the chief reasons why the hands of many of God's children hang down or their feet turn out of the way. Sheer discouragement-and then they give up the struggle. We take comfort that some of the great men and women of faith of all ages have battled their way against this same adversity. Discouragement is an intensely human failing, and profoundly weakening. In this, the mighty Elijah, who towers among the pinnacles of faith, showed himself a man of like passions with us. He stood habitually in the divine presence, controlled the rain at his word, condemned the sin of the house of Ahab, challenged and slew the prophets of Baal then dejected and discouraged fled to the wilderness and "requested for himself that he might die". He felt he was the last of the line. "I, even I only, am left". He was discouraged by a sense of

Loneliness.

This can be most weakening. It may affect us from several causes. The assembly may be small and the hard core smaller still. There may be few at the prayer meeting, some too busy with trivial things. Or again, loved ones may have gone, one by one, from the home and there are vacant chairs. Maybe few call to pass an hour of friendship. From whatever cause, we are cast down, oppressed by a sense of loneliness. And then we remember that lovely, lonely Man of Galilee, who, now on God's throne, understands completely, for He passed this way. We think also of how we have innumerable fellow-members of the Body who are everywhere experiencing a like lot; of how also we have been called into the Fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, so that there is an even closer "fellowship with hearts to keep and cultivate". And we thank God, and take courage.

Then there may be a sense of

Personal unfulfilment.

The last words of Cecil Rhodes were reputedly, "So little done, so much to do". And we think of the years passing over us with so little apparently to show for our personal witness. We just have to face this and not run from it. "I have found no works of thine fulfilled before my God" was the warning to Sardis. So we sense failure and grow discouraged. Better far to have a frank examination of our manner of life and seek by the Lord's help to rid ourselves of anything which may be impeding the flow of the Spirit through us to others. Then gather encouragement from Isaiah's call, "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not" (35.3-4); glorious words, picked up and pointedly applied by the writer to the Hebrews (12.12,13). So let us do what we can with a will, after the manner of our Leader, of whom it is written, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up". Mr J. C. Radcliffe used to quote to our delight in younger days, "Do what you can, being what you are; you can be a glow-worm if you can't be a star". And, says Jeremiah, "Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD" (31.16). Well did the Holy Spirit say for our encouragement, "Your labour is not vain in the Lord".

This leads to another source of discouragement, in this case it may also be collective in its impact-a sense of

Lack of blessing in the assembly.

This can be spiritually devastating to those who appreciate their high collective calling, appointed to "go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide" (John 15.16). The spiritual impact of the assembly in the vicinity of the meeting room may be visibly reducing. Useful personal contacts with those outside may be thinning out. Numbers in the children's and youth work may be at a low ebb The open-air witness seems ineffective and little if any response detected from the quantities of literature given out. Generally there are few being saved and fewer still discipled. Fruitful soil indeed for a thriving weed of discouragement.

Nor is there any modern short-cut by means of which we may weed it out. The assembly must go to the Lord about the matter, strong in their understanding as to what is required of us in the moral and spiritual sphere if prayer is to be effective. Not only so, but avenues of assembly outreach must be explored afresh. Overseers and deacons must carry a basic responsibility for this, but the saints generally are involved. Indeed from the exercised younger people may come suggestions as to openings for the Word which are well worth exploring. These all require study in the fear of the Lord as to their suitability in relation to God's house. A fresh appraisal of how best the assembly may take on the character of casting down strongholds is called for. Some fresh, approved feature may help considerably the gospel service; a new approach to various age groups in children's and youth work; openings for contact with the lonely, the aged, the sick; meetings in houses where the doors of friends or neighbours are opened. Whatever we do, let us not give up by reason of discouragement, nor, on the other hand, fall into the trap of substituting entertainment for evangelisation.

Then again we may be cast down from a sense of

The Lord's chastening hand.

As He loves, so He chastens, and always for our good. Sometimes it is irksome; always, to the exercised, profitable. It may be we are not yet wholly committed, and He touches us in some way so that on self-examination a more dedicated person may emerge. Or we may be in danger of over-much self esteem and again He touches us so that a better sense of proportion will develop. Whatever it is, from a position of seeming strength we go into temporary weakness, so that in the purpose of the Lord we may rise to greater and purer spiritual power. And it is when we are thus weak that the danger of discouragement is present.

Paul was conscious of it. By reason of the greatness of the revelation granted to him, there was also given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he be exalted overmuch. He might have felt discouraged, dejected. Actually it was only to be one of his many weaknesses, injuries, necessities, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake. But Paul went to God about the matter. From Him he learned the secret. There was no need to be weak, no need to be discouraged, for through these very experiences the power of Christ could rest upon him. There he said, "when I am weak, then am I strong".

Time would fail to consider in detail another matter which affects so many of us, that is a sense of

General despondency.

Sometimes disciples in whom we had placed our hopes turn back and walk no more with us. And we have recourse for comfort to the Lord's own long look at His retreating followers in John 6.66, or to Paul's steadfast spirit at Miletus despite the wolf-cries in his ears, as described in Acts 20.29. Or it may be God-fearing parents silently mourn over children who have, at least for the present, broken the family togetherness in spiritual things. And the weary hearts grope through tears for the promise of Jeremiah 31.16. Or it may be the frequent mocking of those who cast doubts into even the strongest minds as to the need for separation in its many aspects if the whole counsel of God is to be given effect to. And our hearts yearn for an unquenchable faith which will bear us along in the path of the revealed will of God, until, without major regrets, we shall one day, please God, look back and say, "I have fought ... finished ... kept".

And so Bunyan wrote, "Now they went on; and when they were come to By-Path Meadow, to the stile over which Christian went with his fellow Hopeful, when they were taken by Giant Despair, and put into Doubting Castle, they sat down, and consulted what was best to be done; to wit, now they were so strong, and had got such a man as Mr Great-Heart for their conductor, whether they had not best to make an attempt on the Giant, demolish his castle, and if there were any pilgrims in it, to set them at liberty, before they went any further, So one said one thing, and another said the contrary. One questioned if it were lawful to go on unconsecrated ground; another said they might, provided their end was good. But Mr Great-Heart said, Though that assertion offered last cannot be universally true, yet I have a commandment to resist sin, to overcome evil, to 'fight the good fight of the faith'; and, I pray, with whom should I fight this good fight if not with Giant Despair? I will therefore attempt the taking away of his life, and the demolishing of Doubting Castle

"Then they fell to demolishing Doubting Castle, and that you know might with ease be done, since Giant Despair was dead. They were seven days in destroying of that; and in it, of pilgrims, they found one Mr Despondency, almost starved to death, and one Much-Afraid his daughter; these two they saved alive. But it would have made you wonder to have seen the dead bodies that lay here and there in the castle yard, and how full of dead men's bones the dungeon was".

Finally, and for our help - the sons of Korah sang, "Why are thou cast down, 0 my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God" (Psalm 42.11).

David, in a day of profound distress, when lesser mortals would have been discouraged to the point of giving all up, "encouraged himself in the LORD his God" (1 Samuel 30.6 A.V.).

Fay Inchfawn, a poetess of recent years, when she thought about these things was directed to Genesis 45.27, and comforted the fainthearted with the words,

For o'er your bare, brown, hopeless hill

The waggons may be coming, nearer still.

Yes, we may not have long now to hold on in the face of discouragement, unconquering it may be, but, by God's grace, unconquered. And there comes vividly to mind brother Alan Toms telling an audience of Indian Christians of a missionary who was returning home on furlough. It had been a long, tough assignment. The ship was nearing the home port. There were many on board, pleasure bound, business bound, and many more to welcome them on arrival. But there was nobody there to greet the toiler from the field. He too might have been discouraged, till he heard an inward Voice say, "Son, you're not home yet".

Soon shall the cup of glory

Wash down earth's bitterest woes;

Soon shall the desert brier

Break into Eden's rose;

The curse shall change to blessing,

The name on earth that's banned

Be graven on the white stone

In Immanuel's land.

J. L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Dec 1970
Foes Of Our Faith