Be Strong and Courageous  - I Will Never Give Up!: Overcoming the Valleys of Discouragement, Part 2

Do you feel down today? Kind of feeling like life's not really working?

Relationships aren't working? Know what you need to do, but like, I just don't want to do it? You're just flat discouraged and need some hope?

Well, if that's you or someone you know, stick around. Today's going to be a big help. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. In just a minute Chip will continue our series, Be Strong and Courageous, with the remainder of his helpful talk, I Will Never Give Up. Last time we looked at how King David wrestled with discouragement and why his choice to reflect on God's goodness radically shifted his perspective. Today Chip will build off that idea as he helps us climb out of our valley of discouragement. So if you're ready, here's Chip with part two of his talk from Psalm 103, beginning in verse six.

Look at the next two lines. He said, the Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments. For who? All who are oppressed. And I think he's thinking not only for all who are oppressed out there, but for himself. You know, he's going to say, you know, God has come through for me in the past. He came through for the nation of Israel. And he says he made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the sons of Israel.

The whole nation is sort of the paradigm, if you will, of God having his heart broken for people in slavery and how he then delivers them. And after he delivers them, he takes them through a journey and then he makes them the people of his own. And he did all these miraculous things to reveal who he was.

And with Moses, he brought him up very personally and he showed him his ways and so much intimacy that when he left, his face would just glow and he had to put a little veil over it so he didn't kind of blow everybody else's mind. And David is remembering that that's who God is. After he remembers, then he has a focus on God's character and God's heart. And this is where you really come out of the valley of discouragement and you get your focus off of yourself and your self-pity, off of your circumstances and what makes you upset, off of the people that you think should have treated you better, off of what's wrong with the whole world and how terrible it is, and you get your focus on what is the God who loves me and who's made all that there is? What is he really like even when I'm not very lovable? Verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. Can I ask you to kind of lean back and get out of the study mode just for a second and get into the receiving mode and think about the word is Yahweh, the creator, the shaper, the sovereign maker of the universe. The word compassion is he feels what you feel. He understands what you're going through and he doesn't just understand then he's gracious, he's merciful, he wants to help, he's kind, he's slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.

Are you ready? He's not down on you. Maybe you've really blown it. Maybe you feel far from God and you're discouraged because you've sinned or you've betrayed someone or you've done something wrong or you fell back into an addiction one more time or you feel far from God or this is the first time in like an eon you've been listening to God's word or anything and you can feel like, oh, you know, I'm unworthy, I'm unworthy. Yes, you are. And so are all of us. But the God that you come to is compassionate. He's gracious.

He's slow to get mad. And I love this abounding, the word is hesed. This is a strong word. This is God saying my covenant, immovable love for you that will never change no matter what, it abounds. You were made by him. Jesus died for you.

You're the focus of his affection. And David is moving from trying to get himself to praise God and get off himself to, wow, I'm related to a God who is like this. And then it's like he just has to keep going. He will not always strive with us.

He won't keep his anger forever. God so wants us to be holy and he so wants to help us, but he's not down on us. In fact, he goes on to say he's not dealt with us according to our sins or rewarded us according to our iniquities. In other words, when you come to God, are you ready? You don't get what you deserve. David says his heart, his love, his mercy, his desire to draw us to himself is so overwhelming that he says even as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his, there's our word again, steadfast, loyal love or loving kindness toward those who fear him.

It's just a picture of those who are related to him. He doesn't leave when I'm in the valley. He doesn't leave when I'm discouraged. He doesn't leave when I'm depressed.

He doesn't leave when I told myself I would never do that again and then I'd do it again. In fact, he's my father. Not only has he taken my sins as far as the east is from the west, but just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. I don't know how many dads I'm speaking to right now, but most of us have had a dad and I know that different dads have struggled with different things, but I can tell you as a very imperfect father, I've messed up and I had a dad who struggled who was an alcoholic, but even through that, my dad's heart, when I ever came and said, Dad, I know you told me not to do that. I've so messed up.

I am so sorry. You know, there's just something even in a human father's heart and I understand there's some ones that were really not good at all and that's a struggle and a conversation for another time, but by and large, what David is saying is, I don't know what your view of this transcendent, all powerful creator who spoke universes and billions of stars into existence and yes, you should be reverentially in awe and fear and the very right sense of that, but if you think he's just way out there and you don't get that he's as intimate as the next breath, that he understands your struggles, your emotions, your fears, your insecurities and just as a human father in those moments has compassion on his children, God is infinitely more like that with you and with me and then he tells us why. Remember I said we're empowered, we're children of God, we're forgiven, we have a mission, there's an agenda, but I said and we're human.

We get physically tired, we get emotionally exhausted, we get spiritually distracted and discouraged. I love this verse 14. God has great desires for us, but he's very aware of our humanness.

Look at this. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. God's not shocked when you sin. God's not shocked when you get tired. God's not shocked when you get irritable. God's not shocked when you act in ways that you 90 days out of 100, you never act that way, but those 10 days over the next year or two, yeah, a person shows up that you're not proud of, God's not proud of, I'm not proud of myself, but God's not shocked.

You're human. Does he excuse it? Does he gloss over it?

Does it not matter? No, but he's mindful. In fact, he goes on, as for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes and when the wind passes over it, it's no more and its place acknowledges it no more. And for David, this was a real life experience. There's a portion of Israel that the hot winds come over and it can be green in the morning.

In a certain season, they have a special word for it, but the hot winds come over and green in the morning and you go out in the afternoon, it's brown. James put it this way, life, your life, my life, it's like a vapor. And God understands that in his greatness, in his infiniteness, in his power, but in his compassion and his tenderness, that we are human and we are frail and we are weak. I love the apostle Paul when he was talking about his discipleship journey and, you know, Paul's pretty focused, pretty driven guy, at least I can tell, 13 books of the New Testament. You know, I mean, this guy gets beat up, he gets left in the water, he gets left for dead.

I mean, he's a pretty focused, hard-headed guy. But when he describes his discipleship relationship, he says, I was with you like a mother nurturing her children and I was like a father who was encouraging and comforting and imploring you to walk faithfully with the Lord. I don't know what you're discouraged about. I don't know where you're tempted to give up, but I can tell you, God is eternal and timeless and he never changes and he knows that we're pretty fickle and that we're pretty weak and it's a very big challenge and he's understanding. In fact, he closes this psalm, my go-to psalm. He says, but the steadfast love or the loving kindness, that loyal commitment of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. But there's a condition on those who fear him and those that walk with him and those who've received him as their savior and are walking. He says, he's got your back and his righteousness, I love this, is to their children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his precepts to do them. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we'll continue our series Be Strong and Courageous in just a minute. But quickly, are you looking for a practical way to deepen your prayer time with God? Then stick around after the message as Chip talks about an easy tool we've developed to help you be more intentional in your daily time with Jesus.

You won't want to miss it. Well, with that, here again is Chip. I have a habit and if you've listened to me very long, you're thinking, man, this guy's into coffee.

I don't drink that much, but I start my day with a great cup of some dark roast, usually a French roast. And so my kids, as you get older, what in the world do you buy for your dad for Christmas or what do you get him? I don't want ties. I don't know where ties hardly ever are. I mean, there's just almost nothing you can get for a dad.

They're really hard to buy for. And maybe I'll get some golf balls or get a certificate to go to dinner or something, but they want to do something personal. So it started a number of years ago and it was so cool. I got a mug and it was a picture of me and my three boys. And then literally I have like one or two other mugs where picture of my boys, you know, like five years later, 10 years later.

And then the other kids were sort of getting into it. And so I have a picture from one of my other kids with all of their kids all over the mug. And so every morning when I get up, you know, I see my family and then I got one that's really interesting. It was from my daughter.

It's a picture of her and the kids, her husband. And on the bottom of it, it has this verse. And every time I pick up that cup, it says this, it says, the Lord's loving kindness is everlasting to everlasting to those who fear him and his righteousness.

His righteousness is to the children's children. And so I pray for them. And I remember how blessed I am. And I want you to know that I declare in my weakest moments, I will not give up.

I will not quit. And if you're going to be bold and courageous, if you're going to be that empowered, forgiven, saved, greatly gifted child of God who fulfills an agenda where you're his eyes and you're his feet and you're his hands and you do what he wants you to do and there will be a great reward and great joy, there's going to be valleys. And when there's valleys, then you need to talk to yourself and you need to praise God when you don't feel like it. And you need to thank him.

And you can do that by remembering what he's done that will lead you to remember what he's like. And that will lead you to a new perspective. And sometimes God will take, are you ready for this? Your greatest moments of discouragement and your weakness.

And he'll flip them in a way that brings about the most powerful experiences you may ever have in your life. And so I want to close with a story that happened just a few years ago. It was in the pandemic, right? So a lot of us were struggling. A lot of us got discouraged. I happened to be, it was going to be on my way to China. We'd been doing a lot of ministry. I was excited.

It was like my seventh trip in about three years and the Lord had opened so many doors. COVID comes, it gets canceled because of where I live in California. If you walked outside alone without a mask, it was like you're going to get called into the police or something.

I mean, it was crazy. And some people are rule keepers and some people are rule breakers. My personality type is I'm a rule breaker. And I mean, I get frustrated and so I can't go. And then pretty soon you cannot see your kids.

You cannot see your grandkids. And so I'm getting ticked. And if you get really, really, really mad and you've done any work in psychology, you know that anger turned inward turns to depression. And I went from being discouraged by the first six months. I got depressed.

And when you get really, really angry, the Bible is real clear too that if it's unresolved, you give a foothold to the enemy. I found myself in one of the darkest times about six months in, so much so that I called my closest friend who has known me for 40 years and I said, AC, there's stuff going in my mind. I just can't believe and I'm fighting and I'm praying and I'm fasting and I can't get rid of it. And there are terrible thoughts and I mean for like 35 minutes I shared as honestly as I've with anyone ever. And he said, I got you. I'm going to pray.

He called me every day for the next seven or eight days and then texted me every day after that. So by the way, when you're discouraged, you need a friend, you need a mentor. And then I remembered this passage and the principles of this passage and I did something that I didn't want to do.

And out of it, I've developed a sort of overcoming discouragement. Steps one, two, three. Step one, I feel terrible. I'm angry. It's really dark. I don't even want to get out of the chair. I don't want to talk. I don't want to read. I don't want to pray. I want to whine. When you get depressed, it's like darkness comes over you. It's really scary. And some of you understand, I mean, it gets really, these are such dark thoughts and you think of where might this go and you try and fight.

And somehow I pulled myself up and I went out and I got on the elliptical until I was just sweating profusely. Cause I'm thinking step one, get your endorphins working and see if you can get your body to give you some encouragement. Step two. Okay. Psalm 103.

Here we go. So I walk outside, I'm walking around the block, you know, bless the Lord. Oh my soul and all that is within me. I mean loud around no one and I didn't want to, and you can tell why I don't do a lot of music, but I did to God. And then the third was after a good workout where I get really sweaty and praising God. The third thing was find someone who needs help more than you. And so I came in after all of that and the TV was on and the news and you know how terrible everything was.

And they showed pictures of Egypt and all that was happening in Egypt at the time with the pandemic. And I have a very close friend who's in charge of all the Protestant churches. And I thought, oh man, Dr. Zaki, I wonder how he's doing. I didn't want to call him. I didn't want to encourage him, but okay.

Okay. Workout, praise God when you don't feel like it, go help someone who's in worse shape than you. Got a zoom call with him the next day, Dr. Zaki, how you doing? He goes, well, my family and I are okay. I think the government's doing the best they can. The churches are barely surviving.

Chip, it's horrendous. Markets are closed. They can't get food.

The people can't come. And as he said that, cause I'd been thinking, you know, God, you got something to say in this pandemic. And I said in passing, well, you know, I'm thinking about a series called the art of survival and he jumped in, send it to me. Cause I'd done pastor training and some stuff there.

I said, no, no, Dr. Zaki, you don't understand. I'm thinking about a series called the art of survival. And it was from James where there's an attitude, consider it all joy. There's a resource, supernatural wisdom to get through whatever.

At this point, I'm thinking it and studying it better than I'm living it. And then there's a theology of all things about discouragement. And something happened, got off that zoom call, had the head of our international on it.

I just wanted to introduce them. And all of a sudden, all the self pity, all the anger, all the me, all the down. I mean it was like, God, I don't have room for this. Those people are dying.

Those pastors are in desperate, desperate need. And I, um, made a couple of phone calls and had a friend come and put PVC pipe up and we stretched some fabric over it. So it looked like a brick wall and got two cameras. And Thursday I started studying. By Monday I filmed it, little three part series. By Friday they had it in Egypt.

By the next Friday they had it dubbed and translated. And, and then I had a meeting with all the pastors. I'll never forget, you know, one of those zoom calls, you know, they have the pages. It was just page after page after page after page. And I gave sort of my three part series and one message.

And then they asked questions for an hour and a half and we got done and my friend said, this is not just for Egypt. And all I can tell you is out of brokenness, out of weakness, out of discouragement, out of depression, when you take the counsel, I will never give up. And in your weakness, just do what you can. All I can tell you is that message went all around the world.

I don't even know how many countries, 26, 27 languages and pastors all around the globe. And their testimony was going through this, I won't quit. What is it that God wants to do to take your discouragement, your self-focus, your current valley, lift you up and maybe even use it in such a way that his power would be revealed in your weakness. Before we go on, I want to pray for those of you that might be navigating the valley of discouragement right now. Life's really hard.

You are really struggling. Let's come before God and ask him for help because the scripture says that he is a help to those who call upon his name. Almighty and ever-living God, you know the hearts and the minds and the circumstances of every single person in the world and you love them and you're compassionate and you are kind. And Father, I thank you that you're slow to anger and you want to help them. So Lord, I pray right now that you would infuse them with the desire to praise you even if they don't feel like it. Would you infuse them with the discipline to literally today write down what they remember about how good you have been? And then Lord, I pray that you would give them one person or some group that is hurting more than they are on this day that they would determine, I am going to help them. I'm going to help someone today who's worse off than me. And Father, would you use this to overcome their discouragement and then take them even in their weakness and for your glory, use them in such a way that would lift their heart and be such an encouragement to someone else's life.

Oh God, how I ask that you would do that and multiply that into hundreds of thousands of lives beginning with each one of us individually. In Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Thanks Chip. And to help you keep track of what God's done in your life, let me encourage you to get one of our prayer journals. Now these beautiful compact notebooks have plenty of space for your prayers and personal journaling along with scripture verses, hymn lyrics, and quotes to encourage you.

If you're looking for a practical way to reflect on the goodness of God, this prayer journal will help. For complete details, visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap special offers. Well, Chip's still with me in studio. And Chip, before we go, I can see you're wanting to jump in here and share one last thing with our listeners.

Thanks so much, Dave. I just want to say thanks to every single one of you who partner with us at Living on the Edge. Some of you pray, some of you give, and some of you do both. You may not know it, but we meet as a staff Monday through Friday and we pray.

I mean, we have staff all across the country and we time it where we come together. We pray over you. We pray over the teaching that goes out. We pray over the projects.

We have so many people that call in and say, this is a specific need. And we pray for specific needs. We pray over relationships. We pray that God will use the ministry here and around the world.

I have just one question. If the teaching on this program is making a difference in your life, would you get on board? Would you commit to pray for us? Would you commit to give?

In fact, regardless of the amount, if you could give monthly, it would make a world of difference. We have so much ahead of us. The needs are so great and life is short. Would you go online or give us a call and become a partner with the ministry?

I'm not discouraged because I know God's in control, but I believe He's calling us to step up and really make a difference, and we need your help to do that. Well, as Chip said, if you're already a financial partner, thank you. With your help, Living on the Edge is ministering to more people than ever. But if you're benefiting from this ministry and haven't yet taken that step, now's a great time to join the team. Become a monthly partner by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit livingontheedge.org. Have listeners tap donate. We appreciate you giving whatever God leads you to give. As we close, if you're looking for a way to get more out of Chip's teaching, let me encourage you to download his message notes. This helpful tool is available for every program. Chip's notes include his outline, all of the scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. You can download them at livingontheedge.org. Under the broadcasts tab, app listeners just tap fill in notes. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.