God of Hope in time of discouragement.
Discouragement :
A loss of confidence or enthusiasm.
What brings discouragement in peoples lives.
Fear - Fear of what holds tomorrow, Fear about future, about kids, about health, about relationships, about career, fear of meeting expectations.
last week at my workplace, i was called by the bosses and was asked to lead a project. But there is already an existing project lead for it.
and i came to know that this existing project lead said " I can not handle this. This is taking too much toll on me". He was so discouraged that the expectations were not met and he gave up.
Self Pity and Self Condemnation -
Why me, Why everything happens to me. My contemporaries are all doing good. they are settle down , but look at me. Pity me.and not only you pity yourself, but you condemn the image of God in you.
Unbelief - Unbelief brings discouragement. Especially when you are in a storm, the unbelief creeps in very easily and that discourages us.
The fear, self pity , unbelief are all by products of satan's lies.
When we face discouragement , we usually tend to focus is on our inability to help our self or inability of others to help us,
rather than concentrating on the ability of God to help us.
It is not the problem that gives discouragement. but it is the lack of Hope is the main reason , why people go into depression and discouragement.
Elijah was a man like us. This Bible is about real people, real problems, and real problem solving God.
1 Kings
This Prophet Elijah one day declared to the heavens and said at , No rain for next few years except at my word.
This is a man who has authority over creation. he can speak to king and command heavens.
and when he prayed, fire from heaven burned up the sacrifice. and he killed 450 prophets of baal.
But something hapenned after that , a woman gave him a message , am gonna kill you.
1 Kings 19: 3
He prayed that he might die.
Fear, Self Pity, Enough is Enough
I have had enough,LORD.
Take my life.
No better than ancestors.
LIGHT and TRUTH
When Elijah was going through this time of depression, discouragement, it was Gods Light an Truth that helped him to make a comeback.
Elijah knows that he wont die, all the school of prophets know he wont die, but words of one woman brought fear into heart of mighty prophet.
brought lies into heart of this prophet.
What goes inside of you is very important.
What are you feeding on?
This WORD is the TRUTH. This WORD is the LIGHT.
This Bible is Word of TRUTH.
This Bible has sustained generations of believers.
But God has dealt with discouragement of Elijah.
When you have HOPE, you will face any discouragement.
God is a God of Hope.
David and goliath.
All people of Israel including saul looked at goliath and were discouraged.
but when David comes he looked at David in a different view.
because he knows the HOPE of victory.
When you are not connected with WORD, some other word will fill you.
this is not like yoga.
Story of a herd of deer. ( from thinkster)
The story is told of a herd of deer who became trapped one winter in a steep ravine. With much of the winter left to go and no real supply of food they were doomed to die. They only needed to survive until the deep snows melted, and then they would be able to easily escape their predicament. When some local residents discovered the plight of the herd, they banded together as a town and began throwing hay down to the trapped animals. They delivered a significant amount of food to the deer. But several weeks later were troubled to discover that all of the animals were dead.
When they investigated, the hay had indeed been eaten, yet the deer all died of obvious starvation. What nobody realized, especially the deer, was that alfalfa - grass hay - won’t nourish deer. They ate it all the same, it seemed like food to them. But they all starved to death with full stomachs.
As humans, our need for nourishment exceeds just food. We also require emotional and intellectual nurturing. But like deer we can too easily confuse true sustenance with empty filler.
In order to nurture our minds and our souls, we must take care to not only find the proper "food", but also avoid too much of that which will do us damage. Like a stomach with limited space, if we consume too much meaningless and damaging “content”, we reduce our ability to consume that which we need.
How can we find the fillers in our own life?
Here are some criteria you can use to identify what may be taking space, but providing no nourishment.
First, is it quick and easy to obtain? Second, does it give the appearance of providing something important, like meaning or connection? Third, can it easily consume a lot of your time and energy? And finally after you consume it does it leave you feeling “empty”?
Some obvious examples would be things like social media, pornography, gaming or other hobbies, drugs and alcohol, etc. Any of these can meet the above criteria for things that “fill us up”, but leave us starving, like hay to a deer.
So what is your hay? What do you fill your time and head with that is slowly starving you? Hit reply and tell me.
