Discouragement and Encouragement: September 2005
Table of Contents
Discouragement and Encouragement
The words “discouragement” and “encouragement” come from the word “courage,” which Webster’s Dictionary defines as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear and difficulty.” In this issue we focus on those things which tend to make us lose our courage in our Christian life and to say in our hearts, “What’s the use?” Then we look at those things which strengthen our courage to keep on keeping on in the path of faith until we reach the end — with Christ in glory.
The subject can be summed up by two statements which will appear again later in the issue. “A truly humble man is not discouraged; the discouraged man is not a humble man, for he has trusted, as man, to something beside God; true nothingness cannot.” “We never ought to be discouraged, because the Lord we trust in never fails, nor can.”
Since many, if not all of us, can say we know what it is to be discouraged, let’s consider together the lives of Jeremiah, Paul and, most of all, our Lord Jesus — God’s examples to us of how to be encouraged and encouragers rather than discouraged and discouragers.
One who has fully learned the Lord’s promise, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” is one who knows what it is to live without being discouraged.
Discouragement and Encouragement: Causes and Cures
Note: Each section under a new subtitle has been excerpted from a different article, all written by J. N. Darby.
Cares and Trials
With regard to our cares and trials, Christ does not take us out of them. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.” While He leaves us in the world, He leaves us liable to all that is incidental to man, but in the new nature He teaches us to lean on God. The thought with us often is that because we are Christians we are to get away from trials, or else, if in them, we are not to feel them. This is not God’s thought concerning us.
The nearer a man walks with God, through grace, the more tender he becomes as to the faults of others; the longer he lives as a saint, the more conscious of the faithfulness and tenderness of God, and of how it has been applied to himself.
We are not to expect never to be exercised or troubled or cast down, as though we were without feeling. “They gave Me also gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” The Lord thoroughly felt it all. The iron entered into His soul. “Reproach,” He says, “hath broken My heart.” But there is this difference between Christ in suffering and affliction and ourselves — with Him never an instant elapsed between the trial and communion with God. This is not the case with us. We have first to find out that we are weak and cannot help ourselves, and then we turn and look to God.
The Lord Keeps His Own
It is a comfort to know that through all, the Lord will keep His own; I do not mean that laborers and all saints should not be exercised as to it, but that when they see failure they have this to fall back upon. But we desire to see them as a watered garden. What a joy it is when we see them so! It is the power of the Spirit of God which makes them united and happy together, but then He must work in the individual heart, that it may be so, that they may be as “willows by the water-courses.” And there is grace enough in Christ to do it. The text has often been a comfort to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” but then we must learn, and experimentally, that we are nothing — we all know that it is true but to walk in the sense of it. It makes the difference between one saint and another; only we must refer to Christ in grace, or we might get discouraged. But a man who is discouraged is not really there: He does not find strength, but where is he looking for it? When we are really nothing, we look to Christ and we know that He can do everything and, while contending in prayer for a blessing, we know that He does, and orders everything. But this does suppose a just sense of our own nothingness and blessed confidence in God, so that knowing His love we can leave all to Him, knowing that He does all at any rate, and that He will make all issue in blessing.
The Heart of Jesus
I thought that she might be discouraged and cast down by this affliction. If it be so, let her remember that His ways are not as our ways, and that the heart of Jesus, of Him who smites us, has itself passed through all the trials through which He makes us pass; that He cannot make us taste anything for our good without having drunk Himself all its bitterness to the dregs. He knows what He is doing; He suffers all that He inflicts. It is His love, His knowledge of all that makes Him do all that He does. Let us have full confidence in Him who has been tempted in all things like unto us.
Communion
In connection with your work, seek the Lord’s face and lean on Him. When the body is not robust, one is in danger of doing it as a task, as an obligation, and the spirit becomes a little legal, or one yields to weariness and is discouraged before God. Work is a favor which is granted us. Be quite peaceful and happy in the sense of grace; then go and pour out that peace to souls. This is true service, from which one returns very weary, it may be, in body, but sustained and happy; one rests beneath God’s wings and takes up the service again till the true rest comes. Our strength is renewed like the eagle’s. Ever remember, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Seek, above all, personal communion with the Lord.
God’s Mind in Communion
Before we enter upon any particular service, before anything can be done, if we have not the certainty of God guiding us by His eye, we should seek to get it, judging our own hearts as to what may be hindering. Suppose I set about doing a thing and meet with difficulties, I shall begin to be uncertain as to whether it is God’s mind or not, and hence, there will be feebleness and discouragement. But, on the other hand, if acting in the intelligence of God’s mind in communion, I shall be “more than a conqueror,” whatever may meet me by the way.
Chastisement
There is a class of trials that come from without: They are not to be cast off; they must be borne. Christ went through them. We have not, like Him, resisted even to the shedding of our blood rather than fail in faithfulness and obedience. Now God acts in these trials as a father. He chastises us. They come perhaps, as in the case of Job, from the enemy, but the hand and the wisdom of God are in them. He chastises those whom He loves. We must therefore neither despise the chastisement nor be discouraged by it. We must not despise it, for He does not chastise without a motive or a cause (moreover, it is God who does it), nor must we be discouraged, for He does it in love.
The Flesh in Us
It is a serious thing to maintain God’s cause when the flesh is in us, and Satan disposes of the world to hinder and deceive us. But do not be discouraged, for God works in you; greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. You cannot be in wilderness difficulties unless you have been redeemed out of Egypt. “My grace is sufficient for thee,” says Christ. “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The secret is lowliness of heart and the sense of dependence and looking to Christ with confidence, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. You cannot mistrust yourself, nor trust God, too much. The true knowledge of redemption brings one into perfect peace, into true and constant dependence on the Redeemer.
Before God or Man?
Poor Elijah! He had a lesson to learn, which we ourselves, weak and poor as we are, need to learn also. When Elijah stood before the Lord, he could by the Lord’s power stop or send rain to the earth. But when he stood, not now before the Lord, but before Jezebel, he was then without strength, and this ungodly woman was able to cause him to fear. Downcast, Elijah therefore goes into the wilderness, sits down under a juniper tree and asks the Lord to take away his life (1 Kings 19:4). How little did he remember what the Lord had done for him; how little did he enter into the mind of God and expect that chariot of fire which would shortly take him up to heaven (2 Kings 2:11)!
So is it with us. We are downcast, discouraged and weak in ourselves as soon as we fail to live in faith and prayer, and then we cannot say, as Elijah in 1 Kings 18, “The Lord . . . before whom I stand.”
Faith
The faith which comprehends the goodness of God and sighs for the time when the people shall enjoy their privileges always confesses the sin which has obliged God to deprive His people for a time of these privileges. Faith never becomes discouraged, as if God were unfaithful; on the contrary, it insists upon the blame being with the people, and that God has only acted faithfully in thus dealing with them. The interest which Daniel felt in his people led him to the consideration of the prophet Jeremiah, and then he entreats the Lord to confirm this blessing which He had promised by Jeremiah, that is, that He would accomplish the deliverance of His people from captivity.
A Truly Humble Man
Faith has constant, unfailing confidence in Christ. I know what sorrow is, but discouragement I do not know. If you are counting on your own strength, then I am not surprised at your discouragement, but “He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” We ought to be humbled — ah! humbled in the dust, if you please, but never discouraged. A truly humble man is not discouraged; the discouraged man is not a humble man, for he has trusted, as man, to something beside God; true nothingness cannot.
God’s View
It is very important for us to see sometimes the church from above, in the wilderness, but in the beauty of the thoughts of God, a pearl without price. In the midst of the camp below, in the desert, what murmurings and complainings; how much indifference, what carnal motives, would have been witnessed and heard! From above, from him who has the vision of God, who has his eyes open, everything is beautiful. “I stand in doubt of you,” says the Apostle, and immediately after, “I have confidence in you through the Lord.” We must get up to Him, and we shall have His thoughts of grace, who sees the beauty of His people, of His assembly, through everything else [the murmurings and the complainings], for it is beautiful. But for this, one would be either entirely discouraged or satisfied with evil. This vision of God removes these two thoughts at once.
The Ruin of the Church
One finds so many wants, so sorrowful a state of the church, that it astonishes, though I have believed and taught it nigh forty years, but it encourages. We never ought to be discouraged, because the Lord we trust in never fails, nor can. It is just in 2 Timothy, when all was in ruin and declension, that Paul looks for his dear son to be strong in the faith: There never is so good a time for it, because it is needed, and the Lord meets need. I have the strongest sense that all is breaking up, but that makes one feel more strongly and clearly that we possess a kingdom which cannot be moved.
J. N. Darby (excerpts from his writings)
Jeremiah’s Heart in a Day of Discouragement
Other prophets before Jeremiah foretold where the disobedient and rebellious ways of Israel would lead them, but it was Jeremiah’s lot to be on the ship when it went to pieces. He warned and warned again of the rocks that were ahead, but Israel did not heed. Up to the last moment he was used of God to press home on their consciences their sad condition, but without avail. Even after the captivity, he remained to guide the wayward remnant of those left in the land, only to experience the same obstinacy and self-determination.
In Elijah’s and Elisha’s days we see God’s goodness to an unfaithful people, but if we ask what were the results of Jeremiah’s prophecies, we see nothing but desolation and ruin, and, finally, we lose him in the great confusion. At the same time, we see his incessant service, unwearied faithfulness, so long as there remained a part of the wreck to be faithful to.
The Joy of the Revival of Josiah
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign. Now this was a period of blessing — of revival. It was in the eighteenth year that the Passover was kept, of which it was said, “There was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.” Jeremiah would have his share in that joy. I have often thought how much depends on the start of a Christian. To have the lot in early life cast among the fresh provisions of God’s house and amid the energies of His own Spirit will give advantages to such a soul, which are not the common lot of the church of God. Such were Jeremiah’s first days — the days of Josiah. He was cradled in blessing, such too as had not been tasted in Israel since the days of Samuel. He lamented the death of Josiah. These joys so fresh were of short duration. But there is an intimate connection between the joys of communion and faithful warfare. There will be little of the one without the other.
Jeremiah had drunk of the sweet draughts of blessing, which had been so richly provided, and therefore he was able to feel the bitterness of that cup which Israel had to drink. The last chapter of 2 Chronicles shows how prominent he was as a prophet. His words were despised, and the result was the casting off, for a season, of God’s people. One of the services of Jeremiah during this period was to break the fall of Israel (if I may so express my thoughts). Careful reading will show how tenderly the prophet applied himself to the then-existing needs of the people, and it is wonderful to see the compassion of God as exhibited by him. Jonah regretted that God’s judgment did not fall on Nineveh, but the solicitudes of Jeremiah were those of the tender parent who would fain prevent the calamity befalling a disobedient child. When failing there, he carries still the parent’s heart, the parent’s tears, to soften the rebellious woes of that child.
How often do we, in our dealings and fellowship with our brethren, act otherwise. If I see willfulness and disobedience, I warn, I tell the consequences, I press home with diligence those warnings; all are unheeded, and the calamity comes, bad or worse than I foretold. How ready is the heart to triumph in its own faithfulness, and the poor victim of his own rashness is left to himself. In triumph I tell him, “It is all deserved.” The heart of Jeremiah could say, “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.” Such hearts are needed now.
It is in the Book of Jeremiah that we have the history of that part of Israel which was not removed out of the land. Jeremiah’s service did not close even when the city was taken and the wall broken down. The heart that is like this prophet’s is true to God and His people and will always have something to do. The special place he held was to seek to draw the people into repentance, to warn even when he was unheeded and the judgments of God fell on them.
Another Field of Duty
No sooner had the captives been borne away than quite another field of duty rose before him. In chapter 42 we see this new labor that Jeremiah found. The destroying flood had swept away all that he had formerly been among — the kings, the priests, the princes, the temple and the vessels. The glory of Israel had departed. How often have we seen that when services have been apparently disowned, the servant retires. When we have been laboring for an object and suddenly find all dashed from our hands like a goodly vessel and our labor seems to have been in vain, then the heart faints and grows weary. Never was there a more complete failure than that before the eye of the prophet. His heart alone remained whole amid it all; he was ready for fresh service. The remnant muster to him; their confession seems honest; their hearts seem true. “Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do” (Jer. 42:23).
Jeremiah had the human heart of experience; he was ready to act as aforetime. He says, “Whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you.” After ten days the answer was given to the same company (vss. 9-22). The leaning of the hearts of the people was toward Egypt. There is something in Egypt, with all its bondage, that the heart naturally clings to. The remnant, wearied with the struggles through which they had passed, sought for rest to the flesh. “Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt” every now and then oozes from the hearts of Israel. There is something in Egypt to attract all our hearts, something that flesh values. We say, “No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread” (Jer. 42:14). The Lord keep us from this repose of death! The disappointed heart is in danger of turning back here.
When the people came to Jeremiah, their words were, “That the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.” God had provision for this time of need. There never was a time when the Lord would not bless those who trust in Him; there never was a place, however desolate or forlorn, where God could not meet His afflicted ones. His word was, “If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down; and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent Me of the evil that I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of Babylon.” “And I will show mercies unto you . . . and cause you to return to your own land.”
The Descent to Egypt
The prophet’s words are despised, and, notwithstanding the threats if they returned to Egypt, they soon descend to Egypt, once more to contend against the judgments of God. Once more Jeremiah finds himself despised. He was unable to keep them by promises of blessing or to deter them from going into Egypt by threats of judgment. The power of unbelief swept the land. It had set in so strongly that spite of the warnings, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took Jeremiah along with the rest into the land of Egypt. But even here we find him with a word from God. Once in Egypt, the people were soon burning incense unto other gods. Once we get into a current, it will carry us far beyond our intentions. This remnant hoped to reach Egypt that they might see war no more nor hear the sound of the trumpet nor suffer hunger, but they went into all the idolatry of that people. How often have we seen the same thing in principle. In all the periods of Israel’s history we shall not find a more hardened state than that into which the remnant sank. See chapter 44:15-19. Here we appear to lose the prophet, and might he not say, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nought”?
Résumé
There is blessing lost if we do not follow on in the track of God’s grace to His people. To do so we must keep side by side with Jeremiah. Others had their service away in Babylon. God remembered His own there. But where there is a heart to trust Him, in following with this prophet, we learn the inexhaustible grace there is in God, while at the same time seeing the evils of the human heart becoming greater and greater as that goodness is put forth.
What varied scenes did this man of God pass through, from the time when with joy he partook of the Passover in the days of Josiah, till he saw the utter desolation which he so pathetically describes in his Lamentations — oh for hearts like his! “Mine eyes do fail with tears . . . for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
As we have before observed, those who beforetime had served their generation by the will of God saw around them the fruits of their labors. In none of them, however, do we see the same measure of tenderness of heart. God had reserved Jeremiah for his day and had given him the heart for his work —a heart sorely tried, but one that could weep for Israel’s woes. This prophet was the expression of God’s heart toward Israel too. “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” was Jehovah’s language, and His prophet was there as the proof of God’s grace.
In looking back on the history of the church of God, we see a constant raising up of one after another to step in to meet the church’s needs. The Spirit of God acts according to His perfect knowledge of present needs. Sometimes instruments not marked either for correctness of knowledge or even purity of walk (when judged by the Word as to their associations) have been much used of God. In the latter days of Christendom, I doubt not that, however lavish the hand of God may be in giving hearts like those of Jeremiah to meet the needs of His saints, the apostasy will be so dark that labor therein, even of the most devoted character, will scarce leave a trace of itself. The nearer we draw to the end, there will be, on the one hand, the arduousness of service, and, on the other, the profitlessness of it to the human eye. But “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9).
Adapted from Christian Truth, Vol. 3, p. 66
Jesus, Job and Jeremiah
Discouragement or Peace?
The Spirit of God has furnished us with a very striking and edifying contrast between Job and Jeremiah in their trying circumstances and the Lord Jesus in His.
“Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day” (Job 3:1). He sighed for rest, but sought it amid the shades of death and in the darkness of the tomb. Dismal rest! In the prophet Jeremiah we see the same thing (Jer. 20:14-18). Both these beloved and honored saints of God, when overwhelmed by outward pressure, lost for a moment that well-balanced condition of soul which genuine faith ever imparts.
Now, the blessed Master stands before us in glorious contrast in Matthew 11. That chapter records a number of circumstances which were entirely against Him. Herod’s prison seemed to have shaken the confidence of John the Baptist. The men of that generation had refused the double testimony of righteousness and grace, in the ministry of John and of Christ Himself. Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum had remained impenitent in view of His “mighty works.” What, then? Did the Master take up the language of His servants Job and Jeremiah? By no means. His will was perfectly blended with that of His Father, and hence, “At that time [when all seemed against Him] Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father . . . for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” Here it was that Jesus found rest. And He invites “all who labor and are heavy laden” to “find rest.” He does not point us to the grave as our resting-place, but He graciously stoops down and invites us to share His yoke with Him — to drink into His “meek and lowly” spirit —to bear about a mortified will — to meet the darkest dispensations and the most trying circumstances with a “thank God” and an “even so.” This is divine “rest.” It is rest in life and not in death — rest in Christ and not in the grave.
Do you ever find yourself disposed to wish for the grave, as a relief from pressure? If so, look at the above scriptures. Think of them, pray over them, and seek to find your rest where Jesus found His, in having no will of your own.
We often think a change of circumstances would make us happy. We imagine, if this trial were removed and that deficiency made up, we should be all right. Let us remember, when tempted to think thus, that what we want is not a change of circumstances, but victory over self. May the good Lord ever give us this victory, and then we shall enjoy peace.
From Things New and Old, Vol. 1, pp. 38-39
Through Encouragement of the Scriptures
Are we in sorrow? Is the poor heart bereaved, crushed and desolate? What can soothe and comfort us like the balmy words which the Holy Spirit has penned for us? One sentence of Holy Scripture can do more, in the way of comfort and consolation, than all the letters of condolence that ever were penned by human hand. Are we discouraged, faint-hearted and cast down? The Word of God meets us with its bright and soul-stirring assurances. Are we pressed by pinching poverty? The Holy Spirit brings home to our hearts Him who is “the Possessor of heaven and earth” and who, in His infinite grace, has pledged Himself to “supply all your need according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.” Are we perplexed and harassed by the conflicting opinions of men? A few sentences of Holy Scripture will pour in a flood of divine light upon the heart and conscience and will set us at perfect rest, answering every question, solving every difficulty, removing every doubt, chasing away every cloud, giving us to know the mind of God, putting an end to conflicting opinions by the one divinely competent authority. What a precious treasure we possess in the Word of God!
C. H. Mackintosh
Be Encouraged
The Lord Delights in Us
“They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel. . . . And they told him, and said, We came into the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great. . . . If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us” (Num. 13:26-28; 14:8).
The Lord does not conceal from us the difficulties which are in the way, but rather bids us count the cost. Our eyes, on the one hand, are prone to light on the difficulties and forget the blessings, or, on the other, to see only the blessings and be blind to the difficulties, but God would have us see both. The spies were to tell of both. Had they not done so, they would not have declared the truth. They were to tell of the giants and of the walled cities, as well as of the fruits, the milk and the honey. They carried a cluster of grapes, so great that two bore it between them (a magnificent exhibition of blessing and of plenty), but it was not received as a counterweight; it did not relieve the spirit of the people from the arduousness of taking possession of the country. They are in distress and dismay. There is no doubt of all they would have to pass through in taking possession, and in one sense, it is right that they should be alive to it. Right, so far as to be aware of the danger, but there their unbelief came in, and there was their sin.
Two men stilled the people; some discouraged them, but two were enough to establish the truth. They were well able to go up. But why? What communication should have strengthened their hearts? What will strengthen our hearts and give us confidence that we may feel we are able to get practical possession of our land? All blessings are laid up for us in heavenly places, but how are we to overcome the strong and walled cities? Caleb says, “If the Lord delight in us.”
That is the whole question; not whether the land is good or bad, but whether the Lord delights in them or not. Beloved, the truth is that the Lord does delight in us. It is this that our souls must dwell on, for our blessings and our deliverances depend on this. I may say that I do not know why He delights in me, but so might Caleb have said. There was power in his word, “If the Lord delight in us,” but how much greater in what we have to say: “The Lord has proved to us that He does delight in us.”
“If He Thus Say, I Have No Delight in Thee”
In 2 Samuel 15:25-26, there occurs a remarkable instance of how the soul grasps this idea when under severe discipline, because that is the time, above all others, when nature would say, “Now He does not delight in me.” The sword is falling on David in the most painful way; he is stripped of everything that belonged to his mighty state; he is going forth to bear the judgment and retribution for an open evil. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” His restoration entirely depends on the Lord’s favor. His words are, “If He thus say, I have no delight in thee.” His whole future rested on the question whether or not God delighted in him, and so afterwards, when recounting the mercies of the Lord (2 Sam. 22:20), David could say, “He delivered me, because He delighted in me.” And if this could sustain David’s heart, how much more should it ours, to whom the truth is delivered in such a different way, for with us the Lord’s favor is on no conditional ground, but one of firm assurance—His dealings with us being all the result of His delight in us. The Queen of Sheba says to Solomon, “The Lord . . . delighted in thee” (2 Chron. 9:8). That was giving Him glory.
If your soul is traveling in a dark and lonely path of discipline, what is to bear you up? “The Lord delighteth in thee.” If it be to inherit the glory, yea, all that the heart can wish for, it is because the Lord delights in you. It was the Lord’s own joy in the matter. He is “rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.” His mercy is the result of His love, not the cause of it.
“Hold fast [your] profession,” not because of what is there, but because the Son of God is there. He cannot come down to labor again here, but He can and does lift up the saint and deliver him from the difficulties with which he is beset. Caleb said, “He will bring us in,” and far more assuredly may we say so, in spite of all the discouragements. There is nothing that can really establish the heart like this. “The Lord delights in me.” What confidence! What calmness it gives! It was the steady lamp that illuminated David’s gloomy path, and it was the ground of his song of praise when he was delivered from his enemies. So then, while traveling on to the realization of our possessions, we can say, “Go on, for He will surely bring us in.” He will teach us the folly of our corrupt hearts, but, at the same time, will sustain them through the trouble with the assurance that He delights in us.
From Things New and Old, Vol. 1, pp. 65-69
Paul the Encourager
In the February issue we looked at Paul as a representative man of this dispensation relative to his person, his ministry and his manner of life. Let us look at Paul again, this time in trying circumstances. Perhaps more than in any other sphere, his manner of responding to these provides a pattern for us.
Paul suffered adversely in two ways — from an ungodly world and from the condition of things in the church. His life was one of suffering, yet he triumphed in it rather than succumbing to discouragement. First let us consider his sufferings from an ungodly world.
Suffering From the World,
but Not Discouraged
Paul’s first missionary journey was characterized by rejection and suffering, including the incident in Lystra where he was stoned and left for dead. Later, in his second missionary journey with Silas, he was beaten and imprisoned in Philippi. On this same journey his life was threatened in Ephesus, and later on, in recounting some of his sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11, he refers to many occasions of persecution not otherwise recorded in Scripture. In referring later to the incident in Ephesus, he says, “We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8). Because of all this, he might well have become discouraged. Yet he constantly tells his brethren not to faint or lose heart. In 2 Corinthians 4, he gives believers two reasons not to faint.
First, he points to our privileges in Christ — how that we are able “with open face” to behold “the glory of the Lord.” As a result, we are changed into the same image “from glory to glory.” If there are difficulties in the Christian life, it is not so much the trials that have the potential to discourage us, but how we meet them. If the earthen vessel (our natural selves) must be broken in order that the light may shine out better, it is only that we may have more of the glory of Christ reflected in us. The vessel may be cast down, troubled and persecuted, but trials cannot touch the spring of our life and energy in Christ by the power of the Spirit of God.
Second, Paul points to the end of the pathway, reminding us that we will be raised up by Jesus and presented before Him. Not only so, but what he calls our “light affliction” works for us a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” What is seen is temporal, but what is not seen is eternal.
In view of this, what excuse has the believer to be discouraged? All discouragement ultimately springs from our expecting something from man, and not receiving it. We may even go so far as to become discouraged because we expected the Lord to do something which He did not do. We may be burdened, cast down, troubled and even depressed, yet not discouraged. Depression may result from the Christian’s being pushed almost beyond his limits by circumstances, yet the inner man, having his eye on Christ, finds strength to go on and not to faint. If the vessel (the believer himself) is broken, the treasure (the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ) shines out more brightly.
Feeling the Condition of the Church,
but Not Discouraged
Paul also suffered much because of the condition of the church. In his day, as in ours, no doubt many dear believers were content to know only that they were saved from coming judgment, but Paul wanted more than this. He wanted to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28)!
Thus Paul felt keenly the condition of the saints. He could say, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?” (2 Cor. 11:29). He labored strenuously to correct that which was adversely affecting their spiritual growth, whether in bad doctrine or bad practice. In all this he was often misunderstood and even falsely accused.
In Corinth some were discounting the beloved Apostle and his office, casting a slur on his bodily presence and his speech (2 Cor. 10:10). They wanted influence and were seeking to take over his work. Unhappily, there were many all too ready to follow these men. In responding to such, he is compelled to give an account of his sufferings for Christ, showing that the true minister of Christ must be prepared to suffer for Him.
Ministry Rejected, but Not Discouraged
But the crowning blow comes at the end of his life. His zeal for his own nation had resulted in his being taken prisoner and sent to Rome. After spending two years in Rome in “his own hired house” (Acts 28:30), he was probably released for a short time. Then he was arrested again and placed in prison.
By the time he wrote the second epistle to Timothy, he had to say concerning those among whom he had labored, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1:15). No doubt they still adhered to the Christian faith, but they had evidently turned away from Paul’s ministry as to the heavenly calling of the church. He saw the fruit of his many years of labor gradually evaporating while he was in prison, unable to travel and to help the situation. We can scarcely think of a more potentially discouraging situation for a servant of the Lord!
Paul the Encourager
But was Paul discouraged? No! He could say to Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1), and later on he could say, “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of” (2 Tim. 3:14). He had committed a deposit to the Lord and could encourage Timothy also to keep the “good deposit” (2 Tim. 1:14 JND) entrusted to him. He would warn Timothy (and ultimately us, too!) of the dangers that would come in the last days, but nowhere is there any thought of discouragement.
His circumstances too were evidently not the most comfortable, as he endured the hardships of a real prison. He asked Timothy to bring with him “the cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus” (2 Tim. 4:13).
In addition, he had to report that “at my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me” (2 Tim. 4:16). Other believers forsook him when he needed them most. But again, like his Master, Paul’s thought was for them, not for himself, and his only comment was to “pray God that it may not be laid to their charge” (2 Tim. 4:16).
Although the Lord Jesus is our only perfect example, surely these things are recorded of Paul as a representative man for this dispensation that we might learn how to face potential discouragement in the Christian pathway. Rather than being discouraged by difficulties in the world or among our brethren, may we be encouraged in the same way Paul was!
W. J. Prost
It Is God
Do you say, This trial or that is enough to discourage me? But no; it is God who is bringing you into it and God is with you in the place, dealing with you in grace, according to the place He has brought you into.
J. N. Darby