3 ways to overcome discouragement
3 ways to overcome discouragement (John 21:2-3)
<Have ‘self-leadership’>
A child fell while playing and injured his knee. He said to the mother who gave him the medicine. "Mom! I wish the ground was a sponge so that it wouldn’t hurt even if it fell.” Then my mother said “Then how do flowers grow? How do you farm and how do you drive your car?”
People usually want a world like a sponge without failure, but it's a blessing that the world isn't a sponge. Failure can be a medicine. A child of God cannot fail or perish. Failure and failure is rather a miracle. It is a miracle to be healed from an incurable disease and to perform a business miraculously, but the “failure of a child of God” is also a miracle. In the miracle of the “failure of the saints,” there is God’s will and providence to always give greater blessings.
Don't be discouraged when things don't go well, and don't get discouraged when things go wrong. There is an old saying that if you live in qi, you will also live in luck. Now open your chest and walk proudly, have a bright face, sing a hum, and laugh a lot. One of the common characteristics of successful people is that they smile well.
Also, say a lot of positive and hopeful things. Hopeful words make a hopeless environment recede. Don't say you're going to die even if it's hard, and don't blame anyone. Failures usually have a lot of resentment, reasons, and excuses. On the other hand, successful people don't blame others for their failures. “It's my fault! The person who says, “I will try again.” succeeds.
It is important who guides me, but I must guide me well. Have ‘self-leadership’. When you give yourself courage and hope and guide yourself well, you can lead others well. Under no circumstances should it appear drooping or retreating.
< 3 ways to overcome discouragement >
People sometimes get discouraged. The important thing then is to manage your mind well and overcome discouragement. How can I overcome discouragement?
1. Sweat
Just before he died, Jesus told his disciples, “After I am resurrected, I will go before you into Galilee” (Matthew 26:32). There were at least seven disciples who came to Galilee to remember the words and to see the risen Jesus again (verse 2).
The seven were Peter and Thomas, Nathanael and the sons of Zebedee (James and John), and two other disciples. They remembered the word of the Lord and came from Jerusalem to Galilee, but there was no trace of the Lord anywhere. As the waiting got longer, the disciples' hearts would become discouraged and lamented. “Then it is! What are we going to do!”
When a person becomes discouraged, he does not want to do anything. Even if someone says, “The sky is blue!”, I do not want to lift my head even once, and there are times when the temperature of my heart goes below freezing and I hate everything. The disciples gradually fell into such a situation. “Where the hell is the Lord? Do you have a vision?” The disciples saw thick shadows of despair on each other's faces. Peter couldn't stand the situation. Finally, in verse 3 of the text, Peter says: “I’m going to go fishing.”
Peter's actions seem ugly, but at the same time understandable. If you continue to do so, you may become even more discouraged. Even in a desperate environment, if you sweat, your soul will not fall into despair. Therefore, when your heart is troubled and difficult, find something to do rather than sit still.
In 1992, the time-limited eschatologists gave up their jobs for waiting for the Lord, causing numerous side effects. When you wait for the grace of the Lord, don't just pray and wait, wait in sweat. Faith without works and deeds is dead faith.
Sometimes, there are people who go to the prayer center every day without doing what they have to do. Other family members are trying to survive somehow, but it is not normal if I only go to prayer centers and only go to revival meetings or Bible studies. Working hard with a sense of mission is as precious as prayer.
Love sweat as much as prayer. Praying hard, but hating sweat is not good faith. God does not give miracles to irresponsible people. That makes it even more irresponsible. The person God wants is not an irresponsible person who prays for 8 hours every day and sleeps for 2 hours every day, but a responsible person who prays for 2 hours every day and works 8 hours with a prayerful heart.
Responsibility is distrust, and responsibility is faith. True faith makes a responsible person. It is not good faith to have good faith but lack of responsibility. Abandoning family and work and following only prayer centers and special gatherings is almost like disbelief. The Bible says that a person who does not take care of his family is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).
I don't have a job, but I don't have anyone to work for. It is never desirable to go to an entertainment establishment to make money comfortably because you don't like hard work, and to go to a seminary without a mission. The more positive meaning of the phrase “Thou shalt not steal!” in the Ten Commandments is “Sweat!” A life without sweat is a life of stealing. Without sweat, discouragement comes quickly. On the other hand, if there is sweat on your forehead, your discouragement will go away.
2. Don't lose hope
In the text, Peter said, “I will go fishing!” to overcome his discouragement, but his attitude shows a resignation that has lost his dreams, hopes, and missions. “What kind of world I turned upside down! Let's go catch some fish. That’s not comfortable.”
When a person loses his dreams, hopes, and missions, everyone finds the familiar life of the past like Peter did, but in reality there is nothing so unfortunate. Faith looking to the past is already dead faith. No matter how difficult the reality, the present reality is far more precious than the movies of the past.
A person's greatest failure is not losing money or friends. The biggest failure is the loss of dreams, hopes, and missions. If you do not have a dream, your life will be wasted and you will go down the path of corruption like an animal. A dream, on the other hand, makes even a beast-like person a saint. When people dream, they feel good, and blessings follow such a happy soul.
there was a wife Her husband graduated from a prestigious university, and her daughter also went to a prestigious university and lived a life of nothing. However, as my husband's company became difficult, he retired, and the stock he owned also fell, causing a huge loss. In addition, he made a mistake in the real estate transaction due to the temptation of the same church member and suffered great losses. I was so shocked that it happened, and even my husband, who looked tall, looked ugly.
One day, his face was straightened. It was because of her mature daughter. He said to his daughter, who had grown up without difficulty. "Hey! Now we can't take responsibility for your future. You have to stand up for yourself.” Hearing this, the daughter came to her senses and decided that she would challenge the bar exam. As soon as the smart daughter made that decision, it seemed like she would get along, and as hope arose, the gloomy atmosphere in the home disappeared. And with hope, I moved to Sillim-dong, where Gosi Village is located.
Even if the reality is difficult, a brilliant dream and vision will help us overcome difficulties. God's thoughts toward us are "to give us hope for the future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Think of a God who is full of thoughts that will give us hope for our future, and let us have hope in the darkest realities.
A person who has hope and a person who has lost hope are different from the facial expression. The direction of the wrinkles is different, and the tone is different. Don't think about despair now, think about hope. Even now, God is thinking, “How can I bless you?” Don't give up on your dreams, hopes and missions even when it's hard. Then you will not be discouraged, you will be able to overcome any temptation, and you will be able to endure any difficulty.
3. Have good faith friends
What did the other disciples do when Peter said, “I am going fishing!” in verse 3 of the text? No one said, "Let's wait a little longer!" Look at the second half of verse 3. “We said we would go together, and we went out and got into the boat.”
Hearing Peter's words, all the other disciples followed. This scene makes us realize the importance of a trustworthy friend. When Peter gave up waiting, the other disciples also gave up. Disappointment and discouragement are contagious. On the other hand, hope is also contagious. When one person has overflowing hope, the dark mood changes quickly.
Sometimes, there are people who secretly donate materially, saying that they received grace from the Word. Many of them don't even know their faces. When I see such people, I pray to God with emotion. "God! Thank you for attaching these secretly sponsoring co-workers. Remember their hearts and their devotion!” Because of such co-workers, we gain the strength to continue the missionary support ministry and the Internet Word Ministry.
A good faith companion is an important component of happiness. Being alone for whatever reason is not beautiful and unhappy. Seeing Adam alone in the Garden of Eden, God said, “It is not good for a man to be alone.” After that, he made Eve and gave it to him as a companion.
A person can be happy by living with good people. Occasionally, they invite the elderly to a quiet country house to take care of the elderly, which makes it even more difficult for the elderly. The biggest enemies of the elderly are not money and health, but rather loneliness, so it is better to have them live in a noisy place in the middle of the city. People need someone to work with.
make good friends A good friend is a friend who encourages faith. The best friend among them is Jesus. Hymn 487:2 has this verse: “All the troubles of worrying about exams/ Anyone who doesn’t have it/ Don’t get discouraged in vain/ Please pray and tell them/ Such a sincere friend/ Can you find me/ Do you know our weakness/ How do you know?”
Whenever I feel discouraged, I come to the Lord and pray, and I hear the wonderful voice of God's comforting voice. Without Jesus, even if you have talent and capital, your life is empty, but if you have Jesus, even if you do not have talent and capital, an abundant life unfolds.
Eventually, the disciples rushed to catch fish, but there was no income. It was because it was a night without Jesus Christ, although he had the skills and the will. It is not enough to have only skills, willpower, talents, skills, and capital. I need Jesus. If you have Jesus, you will be able to live abundantly in any desperate environment, and your extreme despair and pain will soon turn into hope and joy.