An optimist and a pessimist were at the coffee shop where the optimist commented, “Isn’t this a wonderful, bright, sunny day?”
The pessimist replied, “Yea, but if it doesn’t stop soon, all the grass, flowers and crops will dry up.
Two days later, it’s raining and the optimist says, “Isn’t this rain wonderful?”
“Well,” says the pessimist, “If it doesn’t stop soon, everything will wash away.”
The next day, the optimist and the pessimist go duck hunting together with the optimist eager to show off his new hunting dog. The pessimist takes one look and the dog and mutters, “Looks like a mutt to me.”
Just then, a flock of ducks fly over. The optimist shoots and a duck falls right into the middle of a lake. He snaps his fingers and his new hunting dog takes off. The dog gets to the lake and without hesitating runs on top of the water, picks up the duck and returns it to his master. The optimist turns to his pessimist friend and says, “What do you think of my dog now?”
The pessimist simply replies, “Dumb dog, he can’t even swim.” (source unknown)
There are some people who are never happy. You can walk on water, and they still find something to complain about. It’s like they’re under a constant cloud, and nothing you do or say will cheer them up.
Jacob, one of the Patriarchs of Israel, lived like that for 22 years. Ever since his sons brought him the torn and bloodied coat of Joseph, his favorite son, he was inconsolable. Genesis 37 says, “He refused to be comforted” (Genesis 37:35). Twenty-two years later, he is complaining to his other sons, “Why did you treat me so badly” (Genesis 43:6). And when he fears losing another son, he says, “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved” (Genesis 43:14). Jacob, who had once wrestled with God, is just a shell of a man, wasting away under 22 years of doom and gloom.
Then Jacob finds joy again. His broken heart is healed and he once again becomes known as “one who wrestles with God.” How did it happen for him? And how can it happen for you, when you find yourself in that place of discouragement and despair?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 45, Genesis 45, where we see how Jacob’s depressed spirit was revived after 22 years of misery. We pick up the story in Egypt where Joseph has just revealed himself to his brothers.
Genesis 45:16-24 When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’ ” The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.” (ESV)
Joseph knew his brothers all too well.
Genesis 45:25-26 So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. (ESV)
He was in shock!
Genesis 45:27 But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. (ESV)
Literally, the breath of their father lived! For 22 years, Jacob had been a walking zombie, moping around with no reason to live, refusing to be comforted. Now, he is alive again. His breath has returned, and I can almost seeing him kicking up his heels and dancing a jig.
Genesis 45:28 And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” (ESV)
Notice the name change. He is no longer called “Jacob,” which means supplanter, deceiver. He is Israel again – one who wrestles with God. When God first gave him that name, Jacob had wrestled with the Lord all night and conquered his own tendency to deceive and manipulate people to get what he wanted. Now, he has conquered 22 years of depression.
How did he do it, and how can you do it too? How can you overcome your own times of discouragement and despair? Well, Jacob believed the good news he was given, and that’s what you must do if we want to enjoy life again.
BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS YOU ARE GIVEN.
Listen to and accept the positive things in life. Focus on the good things more than the bad things in life.
Proverbs 15:30 says, “Good news refreshes the bones.” And Proverbs 25:25 says, “Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Good news brings refreshment and joy. It revives the heart.
It’s like the shoe salesman who went to a new territory and discovered that no one there wore shoes. In his dismay, he wrote to the company and said, “Don’t send any shoes, because no one here wears them.”
Yet, in that same territory, another salesman wrote to the company and said, “Send all the shoes you’ve got; nobody here has any!”
Where one saw a giant obstacle, the other saw a giant opportunity.
It’s like Harry Truman once said: “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” (www. brainyquote.com/ quotes/quotes/h/harrystru161812.html)
Which are you? If you are constantly finding difficulties in your opportunities, then you will be discouraged and depressed all the time. But if you are constantly finding opportunities in your difficulties, then there’s no holding you back.
I like the attitude of this missionary who wrote his supporters from the jungles of New Guinea:
“Man,” he said, “it's great to be in the thick of the fight, to draw the old Devil's heaviest guns, to have him at you with depression and discouragement, slander, disease! He doesn't waste time. He hits good and hard when a fellow is hitting him. You can always measure the weight of your blow by the one you get back. When you're on your back with fever and at your last ounce of strength, when some of your converts backslide, when you learn that your most promising inquirers are only fooling, when your mail gets held up and some don't bother to answer your letters, is that the time to put on your mourning suit?
“No Sir! That's the time to pull out the stops and shout hallelujah! The old fellow's getting it in the neck and he's giving it back. And all of heaven is watching over the battlements: ‘Will he stick it out?’ And as they see who is with us, as they see around us the unlimited reserves, the boundless resources, as they see the impossibility of failure with God, how disgusted and sad they must be when we run away. Glory to God! We're not going to run away. We're going to stand.” (John W Yates II, “Overcoming Discouragement,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 42; www.PreachingToday.com)
He was one who made opportunities out of his difficulties. He believed the good news in spite of the bad situation in which he found himself.
Of course, the best Good News is the Gospel! Jesus died for your sins and rose again. All you need to do is believe it. Trust Christ with your life, and He gives you eternal life. Sin and death no longer have the upper hand. Now, in Christ, you can overcome the forces of darkness in your own life. Just believe it! Believe the good news, and it will help you battle discouragement. More than that…
BELIEVE GOD’S WORD, and it too will help you overcome despair.
Trust in God’s promises. Rely on what God says to you, and you will not be disappointed. That’s what Jacob did.
Genesis 46:1 So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. (ESV)
Now, that word for “sacrifices” is a word in the Hebrew text that was used later to describe the thank offerings of the Israelites. When God did something wonderful for His people in Old Testament times, they would invite all their family, friends and neighbors to go with them to the Temple. There, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat or cow, roast its meat and eat it all together as a thanksgiving meal. Then the one who had been blessed would tell everyone what wonderful thing God did for him or her. This is the kind of “sacrifices” Israel offered when he reached Beersheba, his boyhood home, on his way to Egypt. He’s thanking God that Joseph is alive!
Yet Beersheba is the place where God had stopped his father, Isaac, many years previously from going down to Egypt during another famine (Genesis 26). Is God going to stop Israel, as well?
Genesis 46:2-4 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” (ESV)
I.e., Joseph will be with you when you die. God reassures Israel. He encourages Israel to go to Egypt. He reminds Israel of His promise to make him into a great nation, and He assures Israel that He will go with him. Joseph, his long, lost beloved son, had already invited him to Egypt. The mighty Pharaoh had also personally invited him to Egypt. Now God himself invites Israel to Egypt, so he goes!
Genesis 46:5-7 Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt. (ESV)
Verses 8-27 go on to list all the children and grandchildren that went with him to Egypt – 66 people in all! Israel takes them all to Egypt with him, along with all his possessions, simply because he believed God’s Word.
And that’s what you must do if you want to overcome discouragement in your own life. You must believe God’s Word to you.
Amy Carmichael was a missionary to India who suffered neuralgia and was bedridden the last 20 years of her life. Listen to what she had to say about faith in the midst of pain. She wrote, “Everywhere the perpetual endeavor of the enemy of souls is discouragement. If he can get the soul “under the weather,” he wins. It is not really what we go through that matters, it is what we go under that breaks us. We can bear anything if only we are kept inwardly victorious… If God can make His birds to whistle in drenched and stormy darkness, if He can make His butterflies able to bear up under rain, what can He not do for the heart that trusts Him?” (Amy Carmichael, “Learning of God,” Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 13; www.PreachingToday.com)
Oh, dear friend, trust the Lord in the midst of your pain today. Just believe His Word, and let it lift your spirits today. At the very least, read it every day!
Somebody once said: “Seven days without the Bible makes one weak” (W.E.A.K.). It makes you spiritually and emotionally weak. In fact, it makes you so weak that you become very susceptible to discouragement and despair.
So if you want to overcome despair in your own daily life, 1st, believe the good news; 2nd, believe God’s Word – at least READ it every day. And finally, if you want to overcome discouragement…
BE WITH GOD’S PEOPLE.
Get together with God’s family. Spend time with your spiritual family, especially if you’ve been away for a while.
That’s what Jacob did. He knew his greatest joy when he was finally reunited with his son after being apart for 22 years.
Genesis 46:28-30 He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.” (ESV)
Israel was content with his life now that he had seen his son, and that can happen to you when you connect with people in the Family of God.
Hebrews 10 says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Do you want to find the encouragement to keep on going? Do you want the strength to persevere even during these difficult days before the Day Jesus comes again? Then don’t give up meeting together with God’s people in God’s family, called the church.
It’s not enough just to connect on social media. In fact, recent studies show that too much time on social media actually increases a person’s level of unhappiness.
The American Journal of Epidemiology recently published a study in which researchers found that the more people use Facebook, the less healthy they are and the less satisfied with their lives. The study monitored the mental health and social lives of 5,208 adults over two years between 2013 and 2015. The findings? Using Facebook was tightly linked to compromised social, physical and psychological health.
And just this past May (2017), The Wall Street Journal published two more studies, which showed similar results. One study of 1,787 Americans found that social media increased feelings of isolation. The other study of 1,500 Britons found that imaged based social media increased feelings of anxiety and inadequacy.
Why? Well, according to one researcher, “Replacing in-person interactions with online contact can be a threat to your mental health.” That’s because “what people really need is real friendships and real interactions.” (Susan Pinker, "Does Facebook Make Us Unhappy and Unhealthy?" The Wall Street Journal, 5-25-17; www.PreacingToday.com)
So don’t neglect to meet together often with your smart phones turned off!
Andy Crouch, in his recent book The Tech-Wise Family, talks about being with his friend, David Sacks, a young man in his 40’s (born in 1968) when cancer brought him to the end of his life. By the time the cancer was discovered, it had erupted throughout David’s body. He had a glorious and grace-filled year of life made possible by medical treatment, but eventually David's illness outran the drugs. In his last days, he lay on his bed. His body became unbearably thin and weak.
David was an internationally celebrated photographer, but he would never make another image. He had sent his friend Andy countless text messages over the years, but now he was beyond text messaging. He had created a Facebook group where he and his wife, Angie, chronicled the story of his cancer diagnosis, treatment, and all the ups and downs that followed, but he would never again update it.
“But he was still there, still with us,” Andy says, “still able, just barely, to hear us praying and singing – able, in moments of lucidity, to open his eyes, take in the small group of family and friends gathered around his bed and know he was not alone. His brother brought a guitar and they sang, several nights in a row, Matt Redman's song “10,000 Reasons.”
Andy Crouch says, “The technology was over… Now we could only be here, in our own vulnerable bodies, present to the immensely hard reality of a friend, father, son, and husband dying.”
Andy says, “It was one of the hardest places I have ever been. It was one of the most holy places I have ever been. It was one of the best places I have ever been.”
Then he concludes, “We are meant to build this kind of life together: the kind of life that, at the end, is completely dependent upon one another; the kind of life that ultimately transcends, and does not need, the easy solutions of technology because it is caught up in something truer and more lasting than anything our technological world can invent. We are meant to die in one another's arms, surrounded by prayer and song, knowing beyond knowing that we are loved. We are meant for so much more than technology can ever give us—above all, for the wisdom and courage that it will never give us. We are meant to spur one another along on the way to a better life, the life that really is life.
“Why not begin living that life, together, now? (Andy Crouch, The Tech-Wise Family, Baker Books, 2017, pages 203-205; www. PreachingToday.com)
Why not? It’s what church is all about, so don’t neglect meeting together as often as you can.
If you want to overcome discouragement in your own life, then believe the good news, believe God’s Word, and be with God’s people on a regular basis.
I once read that the Devil had a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. They were a fiendish lot. There was hatred, jealously, deceit, lying, pride – all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled, “DISCOURAGEMENT.”
When questioned, the Devil said, “It's more useful to me than any other tool. When I can't bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me.” (John Yates, “An Attitude of Gratitude,” Preaching Today, Tape No.110; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t let Satan use that tool on you. Beat him back with your faith today, a faith in God, His Word, and His people. Because “Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.”
