Breaking Free from the Prison of Discouragement

Have you ever been imprisoned by discouragement? I have. I didn't mean for it to happen but it did anyway. I suddenly found myself focusing on disappointments and those disappointments became like walls around me. The walls were like the walls of a dungeon blocking out light and truth. But when I cried out for help my cry was heard.

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament, probably because I identify with what happened, is the story told in Ezra. In the book of Ezra the Israelites had returned from captivity and were attempting to rebuild the temple but there was a problem: the people in the land discouraged them. It wasn't hard to become frustrated. After all, they knew what they were building could never measure up to the glory of what the temple had been. The people stopped the work until God sent two prophets who drew their attention away from their failures and away from their limited ability. These prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, pulled back the curtains of heaven and gave the people an eternal perspective. This also gave them the courage they needed and they were able to do the task God had for them to do.

Haggai and Zechariah also gave them hope when they gave the people prophetic vision they. Hope shifted their view from their insignificance to God. It was God who had appointed them to the task they were to do in their generation. When they put their confidence in God they had the courage to carry out the work he had given them to do. Hope is a cure for discouragement because it calls you to place both your confidence and your expectations in God and his promises and not in your own ability.

Hope also inspires endurance. It was in August of 1926 that Clarabelle Barrett attempted to swim the English Channel. She swam for twenty two hours straight. She was cold and tired but that was not what caused her to give up. It was the fog that got the better of her. All she could see was fog. The people in the boat encouraged her not to give up because land was in sight but she couldn't see it. When she was pulled into the boat she found that she was only two miles from shore. She said later if only she had been able to see the shore she would have been able to have the endurance to reach her goal.

Hope brings with it courage. Hope inspires endurance but how do we get this hope? Like so many things hope is something we ask God for. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13) The discouragements and disappointments of life are transformed into joy and peace when our confidence and expectations are anchored in God.