Discouragement Diminished

    The way I picture discouragement is like a large, dark, cloud hanging over someone, just about to pour out all of its rainy, miserable contents.  It's easy for me to picture this because in Oregon, we experience the darkness, the cloudiness, and the extreme wetness.  So, needless to say, that is how I picture, in my mind, discouragement.

     The loss of enthusiasm, confidence, and even joy in how we feel is never a welcome string of emotions.  No one likes to feel a sense of being burdened down with anxieties and stress.   It is, as if, a gloomy, ugly cloud was just hovering over you, making no room for light at all to seep through.  What a depressing feeling, but thankfully, for the Christian, there is hope.

     We can experience discouragement in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but we all need to remember and keep our eyes on the truth that, "surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me.  This I recall to my mind.  Therefore I have hope.  The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.  'The Lord is my portion', says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him.'  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him."  (Lamentations 3:20-25)   What an amazing passage of scripture!

    Dear friends, we do not have to settle with the thought that there is no way out from underneath the great cloud of disappointment, but we can be ever so confident in knowing that there is a way for the light to break through the great mass and shine brightly.  When we focus on the truth and constantly "preach to ourselves" it is then when we begin to have hope and peace, which is what the Lord graciously gives to those who seek Him! 

     Read the promises of scripture and focus on truth, for it has the power to break through any dark, gloomy cloud of disappointment and diminish it! 

Have a wonderful Christ-centered Friday, friends!

~Grow in Grace~

2 Peter 3:18