Straining Towards What is Ahead (Pt 4)

Whenever we attempt something that we perceive as difficult or demanding, our success is based largely upon our courage.  Courage is the ability to press through, even when something is hard.  We intuitively understand that difficult endeavors bring a certain degree of risk.  Our personal degree of courage will often determine whether or not we will even attempt something that is tough.

Let’s face it, the journey of walking with Christ is not an easy one.  It is full of perceived risks and we need all the courage we can to embark in earnest upon that journey.  It’s not surprising, then, that one of the enemy’s most effective forms of opposition is discouragement.  To discourage means to cause someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm (another way to say courage).  And it makes a lot of sense that he would use this tactic.  If the enemy can discourage us, we might stop ourselves from walking, without any further intervention needed.

The enemy uses two particular assertions in trying to discourage us:

1. Change is Impossible – on one hand, we feel God prompting us to change certain areas of our life, to grow in particular ways to be more like Him.  But the enemy seems to be lurking around just waiting to remind us that we’ve tried to change that area before and failed miserably.  While we might argue that we’ve made progress, he is quick to point out that we’ve actually made pitifully little real progress.  He’ll remind us of all the time and energy we’ve expended and he’ll soon have us asking what the point is in even trying.  And even if we do try, there is that nagging feeling that we all know how this is really going to turn out (again).
2. Excellence is Impossible – Sometimes we feel God calling us to big things, to make a big impact for Him in some way.  But then there’s the enemy creeping around looking at what we’re doing and forever asking that condemning question, “Couldn’t you have done that better?”  That’s such an unfair question, because the answer is always “Yes!”  No matter how well we accomplished something, we could ALWAYS have done it better.  The question is loaded in the first place.  It makes us pause to take on something new, because if we aren’t excelling now, what is the point of taking on something else at which we won’t excel.

These assertions are so discouraging to us for two particular reasons.  First, the enemy’s argument for each assertion contains some degree of truth.  We have failed to make the kind of progress we desired.  We have not always been as excellent as we would’ve hoped.  The problem is that we make a quick mental leap that if any of the argument is true, the whole assertion must be true.  Second, both of these assertions and the arguments that support them are effective at taking our eyes off God so that we can focus upon ourselves.

The most powerful thing we can do to combat the enemy’s discouragement is to focus all our attention on God.  Answer his assertions with some of your own:  Change is possible with God! Excellence is possible with God! God has all we need for all that He wants, including helping us to be more like Him.

Where do you feel like the enemy is trying to discourage you right now?

Next time:  The last post in this series will about straining past the enemy’s use of distraction.