What to Do When You Get Discouraged

John Keats       

Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.

Nehemiah 4:7-15

But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. 

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 

And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you. 

Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. 

And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. 

"This was a very critical time. The Jews were getting weary of the ceaseless work; their enemies had planted fear in the workers living beyond the walls by telling them of their plans suddenly to appear and kill the workers; the Jews from the surrounding area appealed to their neighbors at work on the wall to return home, abandoning the work. Nehemiah's presence of mind and firmness alone saved the situation."

Note the manner in which Nehemiah moved to meet this crisis:

(1) He prayed to God (Nehemiah 4:9).

(2) He set a watch day and night (Nehemiah 4:9).

(3) He set armed men at "the lowest parts," places were the walls might be most easily attacked (Nehemiah 4:13).

(4) He brought in the Jews with their families from the outlying areas, armed them and kept them overnight in the city.

(5) He stationed armed men throughout the city near the construction workers.

(6) He kept a close eye himself upon the situation.

(7) He kept a trumpeter by his side, so that in case of an attack, he could promptly order all hands to repel it (Nehemiah 4:18).

(8) He called the whole assembly together, saying, "Be not afraid of them ... Remember the Lord who is great and terrible" (Nehemiah 4:14).

(9) He commanded the people to be ready to fight (Nehemiah 4:14).

(10) And he ordered the work to go on full speed ahead! What a leader he proved to be!

We put in long hours, we experience a unique form of loneliness, and we face difficult decisions everyday. It’s easy to get discouraged.

And I think discouragement is one of the most deadly of diseases. Everybody can catch it, and you can catch it more than once. It’s highly contagious and spreads easily and quickly.

But here’s the good news: Discouragement is curable.

Head straight to Nehemiah. This great leader of ancient Israel understood there were four reasons for discouragement.

1.   First, you get fatigued.

You simply get tired as the laborers did in Nehemiah 4:10. We’re human beings, and we wear out. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. So if you’re discouraged, it may be that you don’t have to change anything. You just need a vacation! Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed.

2.   Second, you get frustrated.

Nehemiah says there was rubble all around. So much that it was getting in the way of rebuilding the wall. Do you have rubble in your ministry? Have you noticed that anytime you start doing something new, the trash starts piling up? If you don’t clean it out periodically, it’s going to stop your progress. You can’t avoid it, so you need to learn to recognize it and dispose of it quickly so you don’t lose focus on your original intention.

Now, what is the rubble in your life? I think rubble is the trivial things that waste your time and energy and prevent you from accomplishing what God’s called you to do.

It could be committee meetings.

It could be television.

It could be just about anything that turns you from God’s purposes.

3.   The third cause of discouragement is failure. They were unable to finish their task as quickly as originally planned, and as a result, their confidence went down the drain. They were thinking, “We were stupid to think we could ever rebuild this wall.” And you might be thinking, “I was dumb to ever think I could lead this church. I can’t do it any more.” You feel like a failure.

But you know what you do when I don’t reach a goal on time?

You just set a new goal. Don’t give up. The fact is –you’re going to fail.

Everybody fails.

Everybody does dumb things.

So the issue is not that you failed – it’s how you are going to respond to your failure.

Do you give into self-pity?

Do you start blaming other people?

Do you start complaining, “It’s impossible?” Or do you re-focus on God’s intentions and start moving again?

Finally, fear causes discouragement.

Nehemiah 4:11, says this: “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 their work.’”

Nehemiah with faith in God, skillfully arming and arranging his men, drove straight ahead with the work; and in spite of all obstacles, the Wall was finished in 52 days; and Jerusalem was again a fortified city, 142 years after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C."

"We prayed ... and set a watch" (Nehemiah 4:9).

Prayer to God does not eliminate the need for Christians to be alert and prepared to face life as it comes at us .

The old song from World War II, was, Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition.

"They shall not know, or see, till we come and slay them" (Nehemiah 4:11).

Sanballat by these threats was speaking as if he had an army at his disposal; but,

 "This was probably nothing more than the customary armed guard by which the satraps protected themselves; and Sanballat probably gambled that the king of Persia might overlook a skirmish between such a band and the Jews."

 As it turned out, his threatening words were only a bluff.

"They said unto us ten times ... Ye must return unto us"

(Nehemiah 4:12). "Ten Times is the equivalent here of over and over, or repeatedly."

 The Jews from the surrounding area were being intimidated and frightened by Sanballat.

Nehemiah countered this by bringing the people into Jerusalem.

Notice who gets fearful the quickest:

“Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, `wherever you turn, they will attack us.’” (Nehemiah 4:12)

 The people most affected by fear are those who hang around negative people.

 If you’re going to control the negative thoughts in your life, you’ve got to get away from negative people as much as you can.

It’s like the old saying, “If you’re going to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys.”

Let me ask you this: what fear is causing you to be discouraged?

The fear of criticism?

Embarrassment?

That you’re not capable of the task?

That you can’t handle pressure? 

How can you tell when fear is causing discouragement in your life?

It’s simple. You have an intense desire to run! “I’ve got to get out of this! I’ve got to leave!

Yet, I’ve learned in life that it’s rarely God’s will for me to run from a difficult situation.

If you don’t learn in one place, guess what? God just gives you another chance to learn somewhere else.

Otherwise, you just jump from the frying pan into the fire. Running from fear only makes it bigger. So, don’t try to escape from life’s pressures.

But it’s important that you stick it    Never give up.

Reflection:

What is it that causes discouragement in your life? Maybe you’re just fatigued.

You’re just out of energy.

It was the most relaxing day of my life when I resigned as General Manager of the universe.

I realized something: the world did not fall apart the day I did that.

I felt like I was Atlas – the whole world was on my shoulders.

 Let God take those pressures, those problems, those people, those circumstances, those critics, those challenges, and those impossible situations.

Maybe you’re discouraged because you feel like a failure.

You’re never a failure if what you’re doing is ultimately for the glory of God.

Only God can tell you when to let go and when to hold on. But never give up on your dream!

If you feel like you’re a failure, listen to this: “There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

God does not condemn you. God loves you. God’s not mad at you.

God is on your side.

“If God be for us, who can be against us.” One plus God equals a majority.

One of the great truths of scripture is that God is the God of the second chance, and He lets you start over.

He says, “I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.”

If you would commit yourself and say, “Christ, whether I have five years or fifty years left, I want to commit it to You.

 I want to renew my life commitment to you right now. Lord, whether you take me home next week or in 50 or 60 years,

I want the rest of my life to be the best of my life.”

Resist the devil and his discouragement. Recognize where it’s coming from – The answer may be just around the corner.

IN SPITE OF THREATENING ENEMIES THE WORK WENT ON

"And it came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and God brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall every one unto his work. And it came to pass from that time