Tag: Discouragement

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Smell the Roses

I wasn’t looking forward to writing this letter to you, dear sister.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write but that I feel like the last thing I have wisdom in is seeking and having joy. I don’t feel joyful. Instead, I feel weak, angry, jaded, and even apathetic toward God and my faith. I find that I even brush away encouragement, preferring to selfishly insist on my own way and deal with certain situations on my own terms.

My dear sister, it is certainly easy to become discouraged in our walk with the Lord. We start to look at other people’s lives and say, “Why hasn’t that happened for me? Why is it that I’m not as strong as her? If I just had this one thing I would be happy, right?”

I’ve had to make a life-changing decision recently. I don’t particularly care for the permanence such decisions deliver. Having to choose between two distinct paths, knowing that to choose one is to forsake the other is slightly terrifying. So I’ve put off making a “real” decision. But now, certain events have demanded a legitimate answer to my painstaking question. What am I going to do?

As I began thinking through my decision, I realized that the decision I wanted to make and the decision I needed to make were not the same. I wanted to quit, to give up, and to run away. I kept telling myself it was too late for me to ever be “good enough.”

The decision I needed to make involves a lot of hard work, time, and discipline. My past never fails to remind me that I don’t have a good track record when it comes to discipline and perseverance. Why should this time be any different?

This dilemma has revealed one truth: I am weak. I am weak and I cannot be strong in my own power. But Nehemiah 8:10 reminds us, saying, “the joy of the Lord is our strength.”  While it is a comforting statement, it begs the question: how can I have strength, when I don’t have joy?

Joy comes from contemplating the beauty, glory, and love of God. How can we be sorrowful when pondering the majesty of a sunrise, or the might of the great oak trees? How can we be sad when we remember Christ’s sacrifice and His victory over sin and death? But I have neglected these wonders of late; my thoughts have fallen onto myself. Is it any wonder then that I have fallen into discontent and apathy?

To choose what I need over what I want may be the hardest thing I will ever have to do. But I know that what I need is what is ultimately going to bring glory to God. And contemplating that reality is what brings me joy, and in turn my strength.

I don’t know what you’re struggling with today, my dear sister, but in all things make sure you take the time to watch the sunset, revel in a thunderstorm, and well, smell the roses!

Pursuing a higher joy,

Kayla

 

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Disappointment with Self

Dear sister,

Does this voice taunt you too?  “You can’t do it.  You’re not good enough.  Why even try?”  The enemy of our souls is at work every day, convincing us that we cannot do what God has called us to do.  That fact, combined with unmet expectations for ourselves, makes a deadly duo.  I struggle with this often.  On the outside, I appear to have it all together, but just like you, there are very real discouragements, disappointments with unmet personal goals, as well as expectations others may have for me.  How can we hear the still, small voice of God in the midst of this cacophony?

The answer, dear sister, lies in the truth of our adoption in Christ, His perfect love for us, and the sacrifice He made for us on the cross.  We find encouragement from Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

I took a walk today, discouraged with myself and wanting to listen closely to God’s love for me…. and I was reminded of this truth.  God is not disappointed with me.  He sees my beginning and end, and He planned it all!  Of course this is not an excuse for sin to abound, as we see in Romans 6, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”; but I fear that all too often we place unrealistic expectations on ourselves.  We strive to be all the world, our families, or our churches want us to be…and are not resting in the simple truth of who our Father God has said we are.  You, dear sister, are His beloved.  He bought you with His precious blood, and He would do it all over again, even if you were His only child.  The world, the flesh and the devil skew this message, but if we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, we will find our true worth in Christ.

Will you commit, along with me, to something?  For every lie the enemy accuses you with, will you go to the Word and find the Truth of who you are?  Jesus himself used this tactic while in the desert with the enemy, and it will not fail you either.  I’m cheering you on, beloved sister!

In Christ

Ruth

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Christmas Hope: Painted on the Scene of Despair

Cheer and hope is in the air this season, as we all flit around giving gifts and taking in the Christmas lights and sights.  But on that cool night in the Bethlehem inn, there was hardship, discouragement, and I’d bet there were even moments of despair.  Mary had been given a joyous task, but I am certain it was a chore to take the journey away from home, quite pregnant, to give birth to the Holy Child, Jesus.  And Joseph had his moments of discouragement and despair, I am sure.  His beautiful betrothed was with child…and before he had the vision to let him in on the what was happening, I can only guess that he was losing hope, having planned to ‘to divorce her secretly’, Matthew 1:19, HCSB…if my wedding had been called off, after all the excitement of planning and preparation, I’m sure I would have been feeling lots of despair.  Even the time in history God chose to paint the landscape of the Nativity Story was a dark one.  The governmental powers and challenges were tense, the rebuilding of the temple was slow and not nearly as grand as the previous one, and there had been no revelations from God for hundreds of years.  [source:  my knowledgeable former-pastor husband]
The events leading up to the birth of Christ were despairing in many senses.  And yet, isn’t this often how God chooses to work?  I know in my own life, numerous times, God has chosen dark times to break forth with the grandest displays of joy and hope.  My mid-twenties proved to be quite discouraging, but this was followed by a season of such joy, meaning, and encouragement.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘the night is always the darkest just before the dawn…” Joy and Hope shine brightest after the darkness of despair.
​But what does this have to do with you, this Christmas?  I believe it not only relates to what was happening on that quiet, holy night in Bethlehem, but it is what happens in each one of our souls on a regular basis.  We are all going through personal and public struggles, fighting against our sin nature, the world, and the devil.  We are striving to put aside our sin and despair, to CHOOSE the hope, peace and joy that are ours in Christ.  This Christmas, may I encourage you to keep fighting that fight?  Whatever your struggle may be, there is always hope in Christ.  Christ came on the scene during a dark time….and I urge you, He wants to come on the scene for you personally this Christmas…to be born anew in your heart, to be the hero for you, for your situation, for this lost and dying world.  That is the joy and hope of Christmas, my friend.  And it is ours for the taking.  
 
Hope is a candle
A light in the window
Showing the way for
A heart to come home
Hope is a Savior
Who was born in the manger
Sent down from Heaven
To rescue our hearts
Our Christmas hope
 
–The Christmas Hope, NewSong
 
Merry Christmas to You and to All You Hold Dear!  Ruth