When our two kids John and Caitlin who are now in their twenties were only about three and four Sally and I bought them a book and we used to read it to them almost every night. Now, I know you’re probably thinking it was a Bible and we did read that but this one was called, Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Let me read a bit of it for you.
I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on my skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Stingray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal. I think I’ll move to Australia.
In the car pool Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window. Audrey and Elliot got seats by the window too. I said I was being scrunched. I said, I was being smushed. I said, if I don’t get a seat by the window I am going to be carsick. No one even answered. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
After many more unfortunate incidents Alexander ends the day by saying, my bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain and I had to wear my rail-road train pyjamas. I hate my rail-road train pyjamas. It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says some days are like that, even in Australia.
We’ve all had those days and sometimes the problem is; those days can stretch into weeks. And regardless of the quality of our spiritual lives, our personality type or even our financial status, all of us will experience times of discouragement. People will let us down, our plans won’t work out the way we wished they would and difficult things can happen that are simply beyond our control. And the result is; we will be discouraged. And if too much comes our way too fast or we don’t handle the disappointments of life properly our discouragement can turn to depression and even despair and we’ll begin to feel like life has no meaning or purpose.
For instance, often a sense of depression comes from criticism we receive that we feel is unjustified.
There was a man named Robert Fulton who invented the first steamboat but for some reason no one seemed to want him to succeed. The day he launched this boat people lined the river bank while the workers tried to get the engine started and they all shouted in unison, it will never start, it will never start. And when the steamboat finally start and began heading down the river they yelled, it will never stop, it will never stop. So, some people are going to get criticized no matter what they do.
So, what I want to do this morning is to direct your attention to a few biblical and historical examples of people who had reason to be discouraged and see how and where they found the strength to go on.
The first one is Joseph and you all know the story of Joseph’s coat of many colors. Well, this coat wasn’t just something he wore to look good or be fashionable but this coat indicated that he had been chosen by his father to inherit all the blessings that were intended for the firstborn. So, not only was he his father’s favourite but he had also received dreams from God and they indicated that he would be a great leader someday.
Well, his brother’s resented him because he was his father’s favourite and they were also bitter because they felt like his dreams were a put down.
So, we could say that both the promises of God and the love shown by his father would be the cause of a lot of his problems but they’d also be the source of his strength in the years that lay ahead.
First, he experienced the ultimate rejection from his brothers when they planned to kill him but ended up selling him as a slave to an Arab caravan and they sold him as a slave to Potipher who was another Arab. And for someone who was born and raised in an orthodox Jewish home this was a fate worse than death itself. After all, every Jew knew that God had chosen Isaac who was the Jewish patriarch over his brother Ishmael who was the forefather of the Arabs and to be a slave with Ishmael’s crowd simply meant you were on the losing side.
Psychologists tell us that our self-image is developed by the way adults treat us in our formative years. If there is any merit in that then Joseph should have had the ultimate inferiority complex. Even the best of families have problems but very few of us are ever going to experience the emotional roller coaster Joseph lived on and yet he never allowed the many episodes of rejection to ruin his life. He not only accepted his situation as God’s plan for him but he did such a good job at work that his boss made him the chief steward which meant he was the head of the household staff.
Did the rejection bother him; I’m sure it did. After all, he was just as human as the rest of us. Was he discouraged, of course he would have been but I believe the dreams God gave him in childhood sustained him through the times of distress. He always had the hope that God knew what He was doing and the assurance that God was in control.
So, Joseph went from being his father’s favourite to an Egyptian’s slave and then as he was promoted to greater spheres of influence within Potipher’s house he found himself faced with continual moral temptation which we’re told he continually resisted until he was finally falsely accused of doing the very thing he refused to do and he ended up in prison. Now, he should have been discouraged. But, if he was, there was no record of it.
And yet, I’m sure he had plenty of time to reflect on the many turns his life had taken and must have wondered what was going on.
He had been sold into slavery for submitting to his father and for sharing what God had shown him and now he was sitting in prison for refusing to commit immorality. I think Joseph could have written the book, “Why do bad things happen to good people” because everything that happened to him was the result of somebody else’s sin. He must have asked himself the question, if God rewards the faithful then why are my brothers home with my father and why is Potipher’s wife living in the palace while I’m stuck in prison. Why am I suffering when everyone else has done wrong?
At the end of the book of Genesis we read Joseph’s comment to his brothers on how he saw all the negative events in his life when he said, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good.” And because you and I know the end of this story when we’re reading about his traumatic experiences we assume that he saw them this way all along but Joseph didn’t know the specifics of the will of God, all he knew were his dreams, and yet, that was enough to keep him faithful.
You see, in spite of his trying situations he knew that God had a purpose for everything he went through and as Paul would say three thousand years later, “All things work together for good for them that love God.” And they did, in spite of the fact that from the time Joseph received his dreams and they were fulfilled twenty-two years had passed. But, it was his faith in the plan of God that kept him going. As Victor Frankel wrote, “We can endure anything as long as we know there is a purpose for it.” And as Joseph knew in his heart; God has a purpose for everything that happens. And listen, no matter what’s happening in your life, God had a purpose for that too.
I like how C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.”
And then the second person I want to look at is David because he was another person who seemed to have his fair share of discouragements and I can think of two experiences that must have almost broke his heart.
The first one would have been his relationship with Saul. Saul would have been an imposing figure to someone like David. The scripture says he was tall, handsome and for a while he was considered to be a war hero when he had first been crowned king of Israel. David as the youngest of Jesse’s sons had two opportunities to meet Saul and the first was when he had killed Goliath and then later when he would play his harp to soothe Saul’s troubled spirit. Saul had been a father figure, a mentor and a role model to David. And because he thought so much of him David was literally at his beck and call twenty-four hours a day. He ate at Saul’s table, married Saul’s daughter and he was best friends with Jonathon Saul’s son and as time went on David assumed more and more responsibility in his kingdom.
But; rather than seeing him as the loyal subject he was Saul began to see him as a threat to his throne and he ended up chasing David all over the country trying to kill him. And during this time David was forced to live on the run and spent three years sleeping in caves and open fields and finally had to leave Israel and hide out with the Philistines, who were the enemies of Israel.
Now, was he discouraged? I guess he was. How did he get through this experience? In I Samuel 23:16 it says, “And Jonathon Saul’s son arose and went to David in the wood and strengthened his hand in God” which simply means he encouraged him in the Lord. It doesn’t say how he did this; he might have prayed with him, they may have read portions of scripture together or maybe he just reminded him of how God had helped him in the past.
However he did it, he built up his faith. And that’s what God told Moses to do for Joshua back in Deuteronomy 3:28 when He said, “But charge Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.” Or think of the words of Solomon in Proverbs 27:9, “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so does the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.” Or think of the warning of Ecclesiastes 4:10 for those who have no spiritual friends. “For if they fall, the one shall lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls for he hath not another to help him up.”
David had the encouragement of his best friend to get him through a time of danger and instability. He knew he had someone else to count on.
I think the darkest day in David’s life is recorded for us in II Samuel 15 where his son Absolam chased him out of Jerusalem with the intention of killing him in order to take control of the kingdom. And if that wasn’t bad enough we read in II Samuel 16:5-8, “Now, when King David came to Bahurim, there was a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei the son of Gera, coming from there. He came out, cursing continuously as he came. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Also Shimei said thus when he cursed: “Come out! Come out! You bloodthirsty man, you rogue! The LORD has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!”
So, David had been rejected by his own son and many of his subjects and now one of Saul’s descendants was walking along yelling that God was punishing him for taking the throne from Saul which was the very thing David was careful not to do. There’s a real sense of injustice in his words because not only would David not lay a hand on Saul but he went out of his way to protect Saul from those who would have killed him.
Can you sense the weight that must have been on David’s shoulders? His son wants him dead, his subjects have rejected his leadership and now he’s being publicly humiliated for something he would never have done.
His reaction was to cast himself on the mercy of God. He knew God wouldn’t punish him for something he didn’t do. Nonetheless’ the harassment would take an emotional toll on him and his friends. II Samuel 6:14 says, “Now, the king and all the people who were with him became weary; so they refreshed themselves there.” And this tells us, they simply sat down together and caught their breath. Fellowship with those who share your faith in God particularly when the going gets tough is a great anti-dote for discouragement.
I don’t know how many times people have met me at the door and said, “Thanks I really needed that.” And sometimes they may have been referring to the message but other times they were simply refreshed by the fellowship.
And then the third example of depression is Elijah and I spoke about him a few weeks ago but you’ll remember that I said Elijah was a classic example of what we’d call burnout because he physically pushed himself beyond his human limitation by running so far in the heat of the desert.
I was downtown filling my car up with gas the other day and I saw the strangest thing. Someone had spilt gas on the pavement and while I was standing there a cat came along and licked up the gas like it was milk. Then all of a sudden it ran down the road like it was shot out of a cannon. It ran about a half a block then fell over sideways. The sight was so fascinating that I walked down to take a look at it. First I thought it was dead but as I got a little closer I realized, it was just out of gas. And there are people who move so slow you might think they’re dead but they’re just out of gas. It’s called burnout.
Here are some symptoms of burnout; increased fatigue, feeling tired after a good night’s sleep, losing interest in your work, and a pessimistic’ critical spirit often accompanied by withdrawal, depression and a feeling of futility and a loss of meaning and hope.
The cure most doctors would recommend would be something like this; exercise regularly, get plenty of rest, take a vacation and reorganize your priorities. And after God gave Elijah the rest and nourishment he needed He met him on a mountain top where He established that it was He and not Elijah who was in charge. He gave him a new ministry and sent Elisha along to serve and accompany him.
The fourth example of discouragement comes from history rather than the scripture and it’s in a man by the name of John Wesley who was the founder of Methodism. Wesley was both a pastor and evangelist and yet his marriage was something else altogether. A story is told that one night he woke up and saw the devil standing at the foot of his bed. Satan said, aren’t you afraid of me. And Wesley answered, “Why should I be afraid of you, I’ve been living with your sister all these years?”
It’s been recorded that she stole and burnt many of his writings. She would agree with his opponents about anything they said. At one time she left without warning and didn’t come back for three years. One of their friends entered a room unannounced and saw her dragging him across the room by his hair. She even accused him of adultery with both their housekeeper and his sister-in-law even though both of these accusations were unfounded. In the end they separated for three years and even though she wanted him to take her back she ended up dying alone.
If anyone had a marriage that would be a cause of discouragement it would be him. And yet, he was described as someone who was hardly ever down emotionally and they also said he couldn’t stand to be around anyone those who were. They said it was his walk with God that gave him the strength to stand before men and preach regardless of the pressures that surrounded him.
My fourth example of someone who overcame discouragement is Charles Haddon Spurgeon and he was known as the prince of preachers and yet we’re told he suffered in ways that few have ever realized. He experienced emotional problems and would wrestle with depression weeping by the hour and couldn’t explain why. He comforted himself with the realization that his depression equipped him to minister more effectively.
He suffered from gout from the age of thirty-five until the time of his death and that was compounded by a chronic inflammation of the kidneys. The physical pain was so bad that at times he would lay on one side for a week and when several would shift him to the other side he’d ask to be moved back again because the first position wasn’t quite as bad.
Then he experienced the burden of a large ministry because his church had over four thousand members, he had an orphanage, he published a monthly magazine and answered over five hundred letters a week. On top of that he was the constant object of criticism by other pastors. He said these attacks caused him more pain than anything else he had to experience.
In the end he would say of his suffering, it is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one who is weary. He saw his suffering as God’s means of molding him into a better minister. He said, “The way to a stronger faith usually lies along the rough pathway of sorrow.”
He also said he handled problems by relying on the sovereignty of God and realized that everything that came his way came from the hand of God and ultimately was for his benefit. His conclusion was, “If I thought things came as a result of accident or chance then God’s not in control and that thought was worse than anything I’d ever have to suffer.” I think the key to his optimistic attitude was his ability to look beyond the cause of his problems and see the result.
Like Joseph he knew God had a plan for his life, like David he strengthened himself in the Lord and like Elijah he recognized there were limitations to his physical strength. And in the end, God used his suffering to mold him into a sympathetic and fruitful servant.
Let me share one last example with you because Paul and Silas seem to sum up the proper response we need in practice if not in principle. In Acts 16 they had been thrown in prison for casting the demon out of a young girl. They had been whipped and then locked in the stocks. They didn’t know whether the morning light would bring more torture, execution or release but look at their response. They weren’t angry that their rights had been violated, they weren’t even brooding about their suffering, it says, they were praying and singing.
Here was Paul’s formula for dealing with discouraging circumstances. Prayer went up, the power came down and the praise came out. Did you get that? Prayer went up, the power came down and the praise came out. And then it says, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Listen, the world is looking for answers for their problems but they don’t want some kind of phony-feel-good religion that doesn’t do any good when the hard times come.
Conclusion
Nobody was meant to handle problems all by themselves. We need the strength that comes from God and the support that comes from fellowship with His people. As we see the Biblical examples of those who had reason to be discouraged we also see that other than Joseph they all relied on the support of both God and other believers. It wasn’t either one or the other but both.
One of the tragedies of our day is there are supposed Christians teaching that if a believer has enough faith, they’ll never have to suffer because Jesus’ death provides deliverance from any kind of problem and that this faith results in our being healthy wealthy and wise. And I say, tell that to all those who’ve gone before us and suffered for their faith and their faithfulness.
A.J. Gossip was a pastor whose wife had died at the age of twenty-five. He preached his first service about a month later and his title was, “When life tumbles in, what then.” And in his message he made this statement, “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”
Someone said, “Most of us are in the midst of a crisis, we’ve just come through one or we’re heading into one.” Listen, we who live in a troubled world are not without our troubles. But, what do you do with your troubles. What kind of support system do you have? Even Bible believing Christians are no better off than non-Christians if they don’t know enough to bring their problems to the God who cares.
I don’t know where you’re at today but let me ask you, “Where do you turn, when life seems to overwhelm you? Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ or are you simply struggling on your own?”
