Have you ever gotten jewelry, laces or some kind of string tangled? It is the most annoying thing ever, right?! The time it takes to undo what you probably unknowingly did can be tedious and annoying. To be honest, most times, I give up and hand this task off to Ty (my husband) because he is much more patient than I am. This is because it requires an intentional focus to find exactly where the tangling started to know how to undo it. Sometimes the job is quick, and sometimes it can span over a few days or longer--it all depends on your commitment.
Discouragement is much like this. It is the tangling of your emotions, creating an attitude of confusion and sometimes defeat. It may be hard to identify exactly where the discouragement came from because of overlapping experiences or emotions. But if left unchecked, it always leads to a mess in our mind.
So, do you know what most of us do when faced with discouragement?
We obey it.
We rest at its feet as a meek puppy dog obeying its owner. In the same way, discouragement owns us. It becomes our master. We look to it for instructions on how to go on about our day. It tells us to roll over and get more sleep--we do it. It tells us we are depressed so act like it. It tells us to sit in our fear and remain idle--we do it. It tells us to stay in this place of hopelessness and we do it. We do it because it is much easier to respond to our emotions than to fight against them. It is the belief that whatever is troubling you is greater than the strength you have to manage it.
You have fallen into a snare of lies that's trapped you into believing small--smaller than you ever should about yourself or your circumstances. This is a result of living on small doses of faith. Sometimes you believe, sometimes you don't. Faith is not a fair-weather friend that you can take with you in some experiences and leave out in others. Faith should have full access to all areas of your life. Your faith helps prevent the snare. Faith is understanding the enemy will still come but victory won't be his.
I recently learned a spider web consists of many inner and outer webbings that are intertwined to protect it against its prey, of course, but they can stand against hurricane force winds! Even if a single strand of the web breaks, the strength of the web actually INCREASES! Yes, increases!!!
This is how strong we should be! Even when life tries to break us, our faith should be activated to give us supernatural strength! Life will always try to break us down but we have to believe we have been designed to withstand the storms of life! In the moment of what may seem like hopeless despair, is an opportunity to demonstrate your faith and allow it to strengthen you. Faith will not undo the mess we find ourselves in, but it will aid us in the process of discovering where it started and how to undo it. But if we neglect to believe, we run from the responsibility of doing the work and undoing the emotional entanglement we've allowed to happen.
Don't be like me when I hand the job off to Ty when the task seems too difficult---no one else can undo this...this is your job...your fight...your responsibility. You have everything it takes to defeat discouragement, you only need to BELIEVE. Activate your faith, sis, that's the only way you win.
I love you so much and I'm rooting for you. We are in this fight of faith together.
xo,
Ericka
"Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again- my Savior and my God!" Psalm 43:5