Written by: Shannon O'Brien

What do we do with discouragement? Have you felt a loss of confidence or enthusiasm lately in your life? Perhaps you have had circumstances that caused you to feel your courage evaporate from you? When we feel discouraged, we can find ourselves consumed in thought and swallowed by our emotions. It's natural and an aspect of our human nature to feel this way when things negatively affect our being. 
 
In light of spiritual formation, there are three aspects of our being that are important to pay attention to: our orthodoxy, our orthopraxy, and our orthopathy. In other words, it is important to pay attention to our thinking, our behavior, and our feelings. All three of these areas are subject to sin impacting how we think, feel, and behave; and all three, are also subject to the working of Christ and His Holy Spirit helping us navigate how to think rightly, feel rightly, and behave rightly. 
 
One of the first key things in navigating discouragement is recognizing the lies we may believe about our circumstances. Nancy Light DeMoss wrote a book several years ago addressing the "Lies We Believe, and the Truth That Sets Us Free." In her book, she names these five lies we believe about our circumstances:

• IF MY CIRCUMSTANCES WERE DIFFERENT, I WOULD BE DIFFERENT.
• I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SUFFER.
• MY CIRCUMSTANCES WILL NEVER CHANGE – THIS WILL GO ON FOREVER.
• I JUST CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE.
• IT'S ALL ABOUT ME.

While those feelings may be valid in our world, it is important to pay attention to how our thoughts begin to shift when we lean into these lies and allow them to inform our beliefs and emotions in our everyday living. Satan tries to convince us that the only way that we could be different is if our circumstances change. He baits us with half truths, getting us to think about "if only's"... if only I had more money, if only I didn't have work I all summer, if only they weren't sick, if only I would have to gotten to start the game, if only I got that job, etc. The implication in this is that our circumstances make us what we are. If circumstances make us what we are, then we are all victims. And if we are all victims, then we are not responsible; which is what the enemy wants us to think and believe. 

The truth is, circumstances don't make us what we are, they merely reveal what we are. The truth is, our circumstances don't have to control us. We can choose to trust a wise and loving God to work out His hope and prosperity in our lives in the midst of our circumstances. The truth is, how we look at life, and the lens in which we are looking through will help us "see" and inform how we look at our circumstances and how to respond to them.  

It is in our human nature to look at life through a self-centered lens. We think things like, "how does this affect me?" "Why did this have to happen?" When we deeply contemplate these questions, we feel more and more like the victim. The truth is, life is about God and His mission. His mission is to permeate a broken and fallen world and meet our fallen condition with His redeeming power. He offers us truth and grace. The grace is He understands our fallen condition and still leans towards us with love and invitation to follow Him. The truth is, life is about Him and not just us. Our life is to be found in Him, and empowered through His Holy Spirit. The truth is, our circumstances may be difficult and unchangeable, but the Truth of Christ and His story can transform us and our dispositions. Biblical History (His-story) is the story of redemption and He is inviting us to allow His story of redemption to inform our circumstances. 

The question is, will we live out His purposes in His grace and truth amidst our circumstances, or allow the lies of the enemy to rob us of joy, and bait us to forfeit making the most of our days? The truth is in our worldly way of living, humanity has become more committed to relieving the pain behind our problems rather than using our pain to wrestle more passionately with the character and purpose of God. "Feeling better" has become more important to us than finding God and leaning into His purposes for us through our circumstances. As author DeMoss further notes, "true joy is not the absence of pain but the sanctifying, sustaining presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the pain." As we long for the "not yet" we can lean into our circumstances and look through the lens of Christ and see a greater eternal story being written. Life on this side of heaven is temporal, the circumstances that we are in will not last forever because God created us to be in eternity with Him. In Christ, let's lean into our circumstances with Him. What might He be doing in and through us in the process of enduring? What might He be teaching us in our discipline (or lack thereof) to affect our circumstances? If my circumstances are less than what I had hoped, how am I to rightly think, feel, and act? The truth is, through the whole process, whether it be a matter of days, weeks, months, or years for our circumstances to change, we must remember that God truly does have plans to prosper us, while Satan desires to derail us. Thankfully, God has the last word; will we trust it and allow it to inform how we think, act, and feel?

"KEEP A COOL HEAD. STAY ALERT. THE DEVIL IS POISED TO POUNCE, AND WOULD LIKE NOTHING BETTER THAN TO CATCH YOU NAPPING. KEEP YOUR GUARD UP. YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES PLUNGED INTO THESE HARD TIMES. IT'S THE SAME WITH CHRISTIANS ALL OVER THE WORLD. SO KEEP A FIRM GRIP ON THE FAITH. THE SUFFERING WON'T LAST FOREVER. IT WON'T BE LONG BEFORE THIS GENEROUS GOD WHO HAS GREAT PLANS FOR US IN CHRIST—ETERNAL AND GLORIOUS PLANS THEY ARE!—WILL HAVE YOU PUT TOGETHER AND ON YOUR FEET FOR GOOD. HE GETS THE LAST WORD; YES, HE DOES."  -1 PETER 5:8-11 MSG