Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, July 24th. Do you feel down? Maybe a little disheartened?
You don't have to stay there. The Life Principle series continues with guidance for overcoming discouragement. Are you discouraged?
Do you know why? What's going on in your life that would cause you to be depressed? Lost hope? Don't see anything in your future whatsoever? What's going on inside of you? And so, maybe you feel like you've been caught in this grip of discouragement.
It's a cloud that covers you, like you're walking in the fog and you don't see any help anywhere along the way. Well, one of the most powerful servants of God in the Scripture was David. And he went through difficult times just like that, times of great sorrow and heartache and discouragement. But he had an answer. He discovered how to deal with discouragement. And what I want to talk about in this message is overcoming discouragement. And I want to read two or three verses here in the Psalms that express how David was feeling. He's asking himself, why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him. Then he says again in the next chapter, why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why are you disturbed within me? So, here is a man that has given us so many wonderful, wonderful events in his own life through the work of the Holy Spirit. And we see him brave, courageous, bold, and yet he had the same issue that many people have today. And that is he went through those times of discouragement. Well, the passage of Scripture I want to give you is a good example of one of those times of discouragement in his life.
Let me give you a little background. King Saul had been chasing him for years trying to kill him. Finally, he and his six hundred men went over to the Philistines and said, you know, we want to be on your side. And so, they would fight for the Philistines. And the king, they became good friends. In fact, he couldn't have said anything any finer about David than he said about him.
And here's what he said. He says, as the Lord lives, you've been upright and you're going out and you're coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight. For I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me and this to this day.
Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the Lord's. Then the Lord's were the commanders of the Philistine army. And what was happening is they were lined up getting ready to go to war. And so, the king told him, he said, you can't go. He said, I want to know why he couldn't go.
He said, well, here's what happened. The leaders asked him in front of the king and said, is this not David of whom they sang in the dances saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David is ten thousands? We don't want him. We don't want him outside because we may have reason to believe that in the midst of the battle, we are fighting Israel, that he would again turn against us. And they knew what a warrior he was. So, he sends David back home to Zikilak, which is a town that they gave him as a result of coming over on their side. And so, something happens here that put him in great despair. So, beginning in this thirtieth chapter of First Samuel. First Samuel chapter thirty begins in these first seven, eight verses we're going to read, tells us what happened. Then it happened when David and his men came to Zikilak on the third day.
Now, he's left the armies, getting ready to fight and going home because he got sent home. That the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Zikilak and had overthrown Zikilak and burned it with fire. And they took captive the women and all that were there, both small and great, without killing anyone, and carried them off and went their way. When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. Now, David and his men had been taken captive. Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever cried about anything that you just couldn't cry anymore?
Amen? You cried that you just couldn't cry anymore. That's where they were. Now, David's two wives had been taken captive. Ahinamam, the Jezrealites, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. Now, David and his men had been taken captive, and David and his men had been taken captive. Now, David had been taken captive, and David had been killing him.
That's his own crowd. For the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and daughters. That is, their sons and daughters had been taken away. But David strengthened himself from the Lord his God.
Now, the word strengthened there is the same Hebrew word for encouraged. Now, David had been taken captive, and David had been killed. Now, David had been taken captive, and David had been killed.
Now, David and his men had been taken captive, and David and Martha brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them? And he said to him, Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all. And he said to him, Pursue, for you will surely persuade them. And he said, Pursue, for you will surely persuade them. And he said, Pursue, for you will surely persuade them. And he said, Pursue, for you will surely persuade them. So, in the process of doing so, God said to him, You should pursue them.
So, that's what he does. Now, the Scripture says, But David pursued he and four hundred men, for two hundred of them were too exhausted across the brook they saw, and they remained behind. And so, David was taken from the land of the Philistines, and from the land of Judah. Then David slaughtered them all, recovered every single thing, and David's spoil was what they had taken. So, what I want you to see in this passage is that he came to the place where he was in one of the deepest moments of despair because he'd lost both of his wives, the city had been burned, they'd never been taken, and they didn't even know who they were or where they were or where they went. And so, what I want you to see in this passage is that he came to the place where he lost both of his wives, the city had been burned, and David captured his soldiers who'd been following him. And he said, talking about his own men, the kind of crowd that was with him, the wicked and the worthless men among them, that's what he called them. So, they were a motley sort of crowd.
They were given there to stone him because of what happened. Isn't it interesting how you blame somebody else for something? Well, let's be sure we understand the difference between a disappointment and a discouragement. A disappointment is an emotional response to some failed expectation, some hope, or some desire. But now, disappointment is unavoidable.
We're going to be disappointed with people, situations, and circumstances. But discouragement is something else. Discouragement is that feeling of despair, that feeling of discouragement. And so, discouragement is a choice we make. I may get discouraged, but I don't have to remain discouraged.
And so, a disappointment's unavoidable. Things will hit us and disappoint us and can bring on discouragement. But if I choose to remain discouraged, it's because of a choice you and I make. Now, what are the causes? What causes a person to be discouraged?
Well, let me ask you this question. Do you know why you're discouraged? If you're one of those persons who've been disappointed and very discouraged, do you know why you're discouraged? What is it that brought it on in your life? Who do you see as being responsible for it?
Who do you see as one that could remove it? And do you look at your discouragement as something that has gripped you and that's unbreakable and inescapable? Or do you see this as a few moments in your life or a segment of your life? Do you think there's any way to break out of it? So, if I should ask you what causes you to be discouraged, more than likely, if you are one of those persons who's discouraged, you're going to hear something in a moment, you're going to say, oh, that sounds just like me.
That's where I am. So, let's think about some of the reasons people are discouraged. One of them is this, if you're married and you live with someone, you cannot please, no matter what you do, you try over and over and over again, you can't please them. It's too short, too long, too early and too late. That is, too much of this and too less of that. And you haven't gone, been gone long enough or you haven't been gone too long.
It doesn't make any difference. You can't please them. And so, you feel very discouraged.
And sometimes there's physical or verbal abuse, which a person should not put up with. And somebody's always criticizing you for something. You can't do it right, no matter what you do.
You can't do it right. Sometimes it's that God's not answering your prayer. Yeah, I pray. I hear these other people praying, how God's answering their prayers. God's not answering my prayers.
So, what happens? Instead of saying and looking inside to say, what's going on in my life that would cause God not to answer my prayer? They just get discouraged. God doesn't answer my prayers. And so, they come to that conclusion, which leads them to, for example, not to pray. Instead, because you know what I pray and it doesn't happen. They don't stop to think, what's going on in my life that would keep God from answering my prayer? Am I pushing God on His schedule? Maybe God wants to and this is not the exact time or what He wants to do. Maybe a different way than I'm expecting.
None of that. They just get discouraged. Then, of course, when a person puts forth their best efforts, for example, in your job where you work, you give it your best. They skip right over you. Somebody else gets the raise.
Somebody else gets the promotion. Nobody ever says to you, you did a fantastic job. Thank you for doing that.
Thank you for helping me. None of that. You're just somebody, some number that's there, but nobody gives you any recognition. That's very discouraging because we all need to be appreciated and loved at some point in some ways. Then, of course, there's a whole idea that people get caught up in some sin. And you don't want that in your life, but it's there. Now, there's no sin God can't deliver you from.
But if a person is weak in their relationship to God and they're in whatever it is, whether it's on drugs or whether it's sex or whatever it might be, it doesn't make any difference what it is. They get caught. They get trapped. And they feel like they're in this. Or maybe they're just lazy and they don't want to be that way. They want a change.
They want something to be different. But somehow they don't know how to deal with that. And so, they become very discouraged in the process of doing so. And then, of course, one of the things that's really bad is financial pressure. And today, many, many people are living under great discouragement because of financial pressure.
They don't know how long they can make it. If you don't have a job, you're going to lose what you have. Or if you have a job and the mortgage is too high and you bit off one you could chew and here you are and you're going to have to move and your children this and their school and all these things that are going on becomes very discouraging. And especially if you don't see any way out. When a person just sees the problem and can't see any way out, it becomes very discouraging to them. And then, of course, if a person finds themselves in a health problem and they go to the doctor and they say, I don't know what to do.
They go to this one, you get scans, MRIs, x-rays, you name it, and finally they say, well, you know what? We really don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. We don't know what to do.
We don't know what to do. That could be very discouraging because if you lose your health, you lose one of the most important things in your life. As long as you're healthy and strong and doing well physically and mentally and emotionally, you can handle a lot of stuff. And yet, there are people who go through very, very difficult, painful periods of time that could be very, very, very discouraging thinking, God, if You love me, why do You let this happen?
You just sort of like fog out there. Nobody recognizes you. Nobody appreciates you. They don't count on you. You can't name one person that you really and truly feel like loves you and figures that you're somebody important.
They don't want you as a friend. And here you are and you feel like an island in the midst of all these multitudes of people and you're this unimportant nobody living out here trying to make it. And you don't have any support.
You don't have any emotional support. And here was David about ready to get stoned to death. And he had a reason to be discouraged. And then there are people who do not feel like, you know, that their life really counts at all. And so, they're just there. Now, let me ask you a question. Did one of those hit you?
Oh, you say, yes, yes, yes. Well, what are you doing about it? Well, what are you doing about it? Well, what are you doing about it? Well, what are you doing about it? Well, what are you doing about it? Well, what are you doing about it? Well, if you walk around and listen to people and just listen to them talk, you'll find out that there are more people who are discouraged than there are encouraged in the day in which I live, because once you start talking, they start telling you what's wrong. Now, there are a lot of things wrong.
There's no doubt about it. And when you watch the news, it could be very discouraging if you let that determine how you're going to be discouraged. And so, that's why you and I have to watch the news around us. That's why you and I have to watch the news on the one hand and always remember who's in charge. If you don't remember who's in charge, you go down in discouragement.
And so, we have to remember that. Well, when I look at this passage of Scripture and see what David says about it, it says, In other words, it doesn't make any sense what the reason is or what the motivation is. What are the consequences of living in a state of being discouraged? First thing it does, it divides your attention.
It divides your mind. A person who is very discouraged over here, no matter what else you're doing, you can't throw your whole heart into it. You can't give your whole mind to it because there's something over here that's nagging you all the time. And it's a discouragement. It's a discouragement. It's a discouragement. It's a discouragement. And so, many people can't do their best job on whatever their occupation may be because they're so discouraged by what's going on in their home or what's going on in their finances or what's going on in some other relationship. They're just distraught.
You cannot give it your best. And then, of course, one of those consequences is they want to blame somebody else. They want to blame you for being discouraged. They want to blame you for being discouraged. They want to blame you for being discouraged.
They want to blame you for blaming yourself or somebody else. And remember what we said, we all get disappointed, but if I'm going to live in discouragements because I choose to be discouraged, not because I have to be. And so, what are the consequences? Consequences, we're going to get angry.
And we're going to get depressed. Now, depressed people usually do what? Discouragement. Discouragement. Discouragement.
Now, if you've got in something you take once or twice a day or three or four times a day to feel better, that doesn't settle the issue. You've got to get on the inside to deal with discouragement. Then, of course, one of the consequences of being discouraged is estrangement.
What happens? You've met people, they're so discouraged, when you see them come, all they want to do is just dump it on you. Now, one of those consequences is a loss of confidence. When you start losing confidence, it affects everything about your life. It affects your job. It affects your relationships. It affects your relationships with husbands and wives, with your children and everybody else, because a loss of confidence is devastating. And if you don't deal with it, then what happens? Then everything else in your life begins to suffer. And as we said, you begin to look for somebody to blame, then you get angry if things don't work out right. So, you develop a negative spirit. In the Living Bible translation, here's what the Bible says, gentle, listen to this, gentle words give life and health, but griping causes discouragement. So, if you ask yourself the question, if you go around talking, you know what, I don't know why she did that.
I don't know why he did that. You know, I just don't, you just go ahead and you just talk yourself into a mess. You talk yourself into being more and more discouraged because listen, first of all, you know you're right. You know you're right. So, what happens? You just start spilling out all these things that are wrong.
And since you're right, everything you must be saying must be true. And if all that stuff is true, then you've got a reason to be discouraged. So, just get depressed and stay there because that's where you feel the best. And there are people who love being depressed because they have an excuse for not doing what they ought to be doing as far as a wife or a husband or a mother or a father. They just enjoy being depressed because it's an escape.
It is an escape that is endless. They're not happy. They have no joy, no peace, no real contentment in their life. And then, of course, one of the consequences is making unwise decisions. When you're discouraged and you get a little frantic about things, you're going to make unwise decisions. Usually they're very costly decisions. It's not wise to make a decision when you're too tired. It's not wise to make a decision when you're angry. And it's certainly not wise to make a decision when you're just very, very discouraged about things and down in the dumps.
In other words, because you're not thinking properly. What I want you to see is there are consequences to discouragement that are destructive, that are costly not only in money but in relationships, and also costly in your spiritual life. Thank you for listening to Overcoming Discouragement. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by In Touch Toto RG. And don't forget we have a limited audio series this month titled Songs of Spirit and Truth. We'll meet a disabled couple who felt unwelcome and unloved in their culture. Let's hear how God lifted them up and provided. Find this audio series at intouch.org slash global. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
