Is Feeling Discouraged Always Wrong?
Seek the Lord
Feeling discouraged can't always be wrong because we saw Jesus over and over and over again saying, Do not fear. So if Jesus knew our humanity and that we needed to be encouraged to be strong and courageous, and he spoke those words—Do not fear—to us, then we don't have to feel embarrassed or ashamed when we feel afraid.
What's wrong is what we do with the discouragement and how we handle those feelings. In 2 Chronicles, Jehoshaphat was afraid. He saw a great horde coming against him and he was terrified. And there was a reason he didn't have courage. He should have be terrified. There was a great enemy coming toward him that he saw. It makes sense.
A Better Encouragement
Lindsey Carlson
Lindsey Carlson leads weak and weary women to a refreshing stream—the God of endurance and encouragement, who satisfies spiritual thirst through the better word of his Son.
But what he did is telling. Scripture says, “Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord, from all the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.” And what he ends up saying is, “We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
We're often focused on how we can fix problems, but discouragement should act as an invitation that calls us to seek the Lord and say, Lord, we don't know what to do. We need you to give us the courage and the strength to stand. We need the encouragement of the Scriptures that fills us with the truth of God.
Lindsey Carlson is the author of A Better Encouragement: Trading Self-Help for True Hope.
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