"Discouragement"

February 14, 2020 | By Chuck

Peter wrote both of his epistles to persecuted Christians, and I’m sure many of them battled discouragement. To endure that kind of treatment would be discouraging. Discouragement is not a foreign concept for us today. If we’re honest, we all deal with discouragement at times. Discouragement can come as a result of problems at work or family issues and countless other things. As normal as discouragement is, it must not be taken lightly as it can be dangerous. Discouragement can destroy your marriage, your career and your faith.
Discouragement is dangerous and a tool of the Devil. Satan will do anything in his limited power to discourage Christians because he knows discouraged Christians will either be lukewarm and ineffective or they will leave the faith. Peter obviously knew that discouraged Christians could be tempted to give up on God, so he wrote to give them hope. A discouraged person needs hope. In fact, a discouraged individual who feels hopeless is in a very desperate and potentially dangerous situation. No matter what’s going on, there is hope for the Christian. Peter reminds Christians of the hope we have of an eternal inheritance in heaven that should motivate us to be faithful, even when facing discouragement.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you”(I Peter 1:3-4).