Resisting Discouragement

So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. Galatians 6:9 (NLT)

There are many things that work to keep us from completing our life-missions. Over the years, I’ve debated whether the worst enemy is procrastination or discouragement. If Satan can’t get us to put off our life missions, then he’ll try to get us to quit altogether.

The apostle Paul teaches that we need to resist discouragement: “So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up …” (Galatians 6:9 NLT).

Do you ever get tired of doing what’s right? I think we all do. Sometimes it seems easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing.

When we’re discouraged, we become ineffective. When we’re discouraged, we work against our own faith.

When I’m discouraged, I’m saying, “It can’t be done.” That’s the exact opposite of saying, “I know God can do it because he said ….”

Ask yourself these questions:

· How do I handle failure?
· When things don’t go my way, do I get grumpy?
· When things don’t go my way, do I get frustrated?
· When things don’t go my way, do I start complaining?
· Do I finish what I start?
· How would I rate on persistence?
If you’re discouraged, don’t give up without a fight. Nothing worthwhile ever happens without endurance and energy.

When an artist starts to create a sculpture, he has to keep chipping away. He doesn’t hit the chisel with the hammer once, and suddenly all the excess stone falls away revealing a beautiful masterpiece. He keeps hitting it and hitting it, chipping away at the stone.

And that’s true of life, too:
Nothing really worthwhile ever comes easy in life.
You keep hitting it and going after it, and little-by-little
Your life becomes a masterpiece of God’s grace.

The fact is, great people are really just ordinary people with an extraordinary amount of determination. Great people don’t know how to quit.

© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. By Rick Warren

The Price of Self-Obsession

“I am the LORD. There is no other God.” Isaiah 45:18

We pay a high price for…self-obsession. “God isn’t pleased at being ignored” (Rom. 8:8 MSG). Paul speaks of sinners when he describes those who “knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God…So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired” (Rom. 1:21, 24 NASB).

You’ve seen the chaos.
The husband ignoring his wife.
The dictator murdering the millions.
Grown men seducing the young. The young propositioning the old.
When you do what you want, and I do what I want, and no one gives a lick as to what God wants, humanity implodes. The infection of the person leads to the corruption of the populace…

Extract God; expect earthly chaos and, many times worse, expect eternal misery.

Originally printed in Come Thirsty by Max Lucado