Individual Discouragement And Personal Growth

There are times when things get really tough in life...from all angles. I have been battling discouragement which hit me so bad (the last few weeks). Discouragement comes along with its 'friend' depression. I know I am not the only one going through a tough time. I look at people every day and I can tell that they too have struggles and are battling things in their own lives. The Bible does not promise a 'bed of Roses' but actually predicts times such as these. My biggest and main one is what I call "Emotional desert place'. Its a battle I have been fighting and have surrendered to God and taken back like a million times. Even though I very well know that God wants me to surrender all to him. 1 peter 5:7 encourages us to cast all our cares on Jesus for He cares. He sees our emotional struggles not to mention the others that we don't even want to talk about.

When we sometimes look around and seem to see no hope coming, hear the sound like a mighty rushing river heading our way, we tend to go into 'discouragement mode' (at least I do, that much I will tell you). Have you felt lately like you were drowning and that no one seems to care or even notice what you are going through? Well, God does see and He knows about it all. 2 Samuel 22:17 says that "God draws us out of deep waters". I have been feeling very strongly like I was drowning. The 'emotional desert place' can be very dry, lonely, cold which may bring about severe depression.There are are many reasons that cause all this but I wont delve into it right now. A few weeks a go, my dear friends Paul and Anne gave me a book called " My utmost for the Highest" by Oswald chambers...it helped me tremendously.

"...when Moses was grown...he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens" (Exodus 2:11).

When Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt and felt certain that He was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his spirit, he started to write their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God, He(God) allowed Moses to be driven into empty DISCOURAGEMENT, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for fourty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and told him "...bring my people...out of Egypt.' But Moses said to God, ' Who am I that I should go...?' (Ex. 3:10-11).

When called called Moses, he Moses realized that he was the one to deliver the people out of bondage, but he had to be trained and disciplined
by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but was not the person for the job until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.

We may have the vision of God and very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses' fourty years in the wilderness. This is many times a place of DISCOURAGEMENT. It is as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly DISCOURAGED, God comes back and revives His call to us.

We must learn that our individual effort to God shows nothing but disrespect for Him- our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God so that He may be "well pleased" We tend to focus on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say " I know this is what God whats me to do" But we have not yet learned to get into God's stride.

If you are going through a time of DISCOURAGEMENT, there is a time of great personal growth ahead. Its seems like a life time when waiting on God for certain things in our lives...BUT God is more than able to do much more than we even ask of him. He is the "on time God"!!
THIS IS OUR GOD!!

Have a blessed day!!