KEY SCRIPTURE: Pro 13:12 KJV” Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

In our last study, we learnt that Jacob was deceived and disappointed by his uncle Laban, yet he did not get discouraged. At the end of the day, he got what he wanted. Please ask yourself what you would have done in that situation? Certain individuals have left their place of employment because the boss said something bad to them. These individuals may still be searching for a new job, yet things may not be going well for them. The insult from their boss could have been bad, yet did he have to be so discouraged that he stopped working? Is your mistreatment more than Jacob’s situation? Others might have had worse treatments, yet they chose not to be offended and so were not discouraged. A visit to the mental hospital has both men and women who have become social wrecks because they chose to be discouraged by their wife’s actions, a husband’s actions, or some other fellow. They chose to allow the condition to eat so deeply into them that they could not handle their thought pattern.

From the above, we see that to be discouraged is your choice. Now, what kind of individuals are prone to such negative responses?

1. People who have been pampered throughout their upbringing do not see that they are responsible for what happens to them. There are some students who feel they are in school for their parents. Such people are deeply hurt when the people they have been looking up to fail them.
2. The next set of people who easily get discouraged are some Christians who have not developed a personal knowledge and a relationship with God. When things go bad, they don’t have any solid grounds to stand on. An example is King Saul. He knew the prophet Samuel but did not know God for himself, so he was so full of himself that discouragement gave way to the spirit of depression that needed a psalmist to play and relieve him of the depression.
3. The third group is those who normally consider the negative aspect of what happens. They keep asking why things should go badly. They complain about the mistreatment of others. They are filled with themselves and have no love or true reverence for God. Such people can even get offended with God for making or allowing certain events to happen to them. They are never thankful to God. There is no time when such people are joyful to express gratitude to God. Sadly, such people are depressed most of the time.

What is the way out? As we have seen, such a person’s challenge is their own attitude to God. They must repent from their selfish tendencies and begin relating to the Lord on a more personal level. Please understand that any strong person of character has developed these three abiding virtues. Faith, hope and love. If you relate more with God and His word, you would gradually develop them, and you would not yield to discouragement, no matter how bad things may go.

THOUGHT: BUILD A STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD TO BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH THE NEGATIVE ISSUES OF LIFE

FURTHER STUDIES

1Co 13:13 ISV “Right now, three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

2Ti 3:2 ISV” People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,”