Overcoming discouragement (1)

Sat, 17 Sep 2022

‘Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.’ Jeremiah 32:17

If the issue you’re wrestling with has discouraged you and got you down, here are some things to do:

First, take a short look at the problem. Someone once said, ‘To hatch despair, just brood over your troubles.’ Many people who experience setbacks ask why. But they never move beyond the question to the answer. Certainly, you can’t solve your problems by ignoring them, but you can’t solve them by becoming fixated and immobilised by them either. Once you recognise and analyse the problem, you need to focus on the solution.

Second, take a long look at the possibilities. Sometimes the problem you face can help you see possibilities you didn’t know existed. When Louis Waterman needed to sign a document to close a deal, the fountain pen he was using wouldn’t write. As a result, Waterman worked to develop the now-famous fountain pen that bears his name worldwide. A culture Dr Alexander Fleming was working on in St Mary’s Hospital in London was altered when mould was accidentally introduced into it. But the result gave birth to the miracle drug penicillin, saving millions of lives.

If you’re facing something negative today, there may be an opportunity contained in it somewhere, somehow. It may not be easy to find, and it may not lead to a major breakthrough like it did for Waterman and Fleming. But then again—it might—especially if it causes you to turn to God for answers.

In the words of Jeremiah, ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.’