Discouragement. Who of us has not felt it as a believer at one time or another? We may experience it because of something that recently happened; a job problem; a health issue; a relationship blow up; a rejection. We may doubt God’s goodness because of it. Or we’ve dealt with some issue for years. It doesn’t seem to get better. We wonder if our faith even matters or if God even cares. Or maybe we look back and add up the hard stuff in our lives. We might think if God allowed that to happen to us, do we really want to stick with Him. Commentator George Guthrie puts it like this. “Life, and thus the Christian life, is fraught with trials that suck the emotional winds from our sails. When discouragement comes – the kind of discouragement that screams questions at the faith – we need encouragement and perspective, we need the community of faith; we need help to stay the course of commitment.” -1
