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.