Getting A Handle On Discouragement!

HOW TO HANDLE DISCOURAGEMENT!

INTRO:

A gardener took great pride in caring for his lawn. But one year it grew full of dandelions. He tried every method and product to get rid of them, but nothing worked. Exasperated, he wrote the Department of Agriculture explaining all he had done. “What shall I try next?” he wrote. The repy cam back, “Try getting used to them,”

If you were to asked, what is the worlds deadliest disease, what would you choose? Would it be Heart disease, Cancer, Multiple Scleroses, Diabetes, Aids?

Most of us would not choose discouragement is a leading deadly disease, but let me tell you why I believe that discouragement is just right up there with the top killers.

First of all, it is more common than all the others combined

· It is universal –All of us get it at some point.

· It is recurring –Most everyone gets discouragement many times.

· It is highly contagious –Other people can get discouraged because of you.

Many of the world’s and the church’s greatest leaders have been given to discouragement..

Winston Churchill confessed that he was often, “hounded by the big dog of discouragement.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul fought continually bouts of depression and discouragement as a result of gout that finally killed him at age 58.

If you are singing the blues in your life it may help to know that the Psalmist understood and wrote about discouragement in Psalm77. The man we meet in this Psalm bore all the marks that would today be diagnosed as depression

He felt forgotten and forsaken by God.

He couldn’t sleep.

He couldn’t articulate his thoughts because of emotional exhaustion.

He was tired all the time.

He lived in the past longing for a day that had passed by.

He became so depressed that he even began to question God (7-9). “Has God rejected his people?” “Does God no longer care?” “Has God lost his compassion?”

These are sharp piercing questions, but they were the questions that came from the Psalmist as he wallowed in discouragement and despair.

The good news is there is a remedy for discouragement:

I see some principles from the life of Nehemiah to provide timely hope and help for our troubled souls.

Nehemiah was a leader of the Jews that had returned to Israel from Babylon to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. When they first began the work, they were filled with enthusiasm and fervor and were excited about finishing the project. However, after working for a while they became discouraged.

Nehemiah 4:6 Note how they were spirited and full of zeal in their efforts. “So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart”

But notice, something happens in their zeal. Nehemiah 4:10-12 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall." Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work. Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."

I see four causes for discouragement: I want to show you how people become discouraged and the remedy to over-come!

I Fatigue Nehemiah 4:10 The strength of the laborers is giving out,

They had worked themselves to exhaustion. They were just flat wore out. They were physically, mentally and emotionally drained.

Some of the most spiritual people I know that live in guilt and feel like they need to recommit their life to God often times are the ones working the most for God. The most spiritual thing they can do is go to bed, rest, relax, or take a two week vacation they can afford.

Notice when fatigue and discouragement set in” Nehemiah 4:6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height

Have you noticed that people get wore out about half way through and job” Everyone is working hard at first, Excitement is in the air Nehemiah 4:6 says they worked with all their heart

There is the newness of the project but the newness wore off and the work Becomes mundane. Life as settled down to a routine, then a ritual, then a rut!

Fatigue is one of the major causes of discouragement and that is why many people start projects and never complete them

II. FRUSTRATION: Nehemiah 4:10 there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild

the wall."

They were disheartened and disillusioned by the obstacles that were in their way. They were building a new wall but the old broken rocks where everywhere and in the way.