Discouragement

Scripture I'm Reflecting on:  Ezra 4:4
     "Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work.  They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans."

Reflection:
When is your faith at its low points?  When do you find yourself neglecting prayer?  I'll bet its not when you had a great day.  If youre anything like me, you find yourself forgetting about God when we're discouraged.  When we were reprimanded at work.  Lost out on an opportunity.  Turned down for a date.  Mocked.  Laughed at.  The residents in this verse knew this, and this still stands true today.

Discouragement surrounds us in all facets of our lives.  It may not be as blatant as the Early Christians faced, but it is just as prevalent.  Turn on the TV for any significant period of time, and I assure you that you will find something discouraging for Christians.  Try to go out to almost any public place talk about the Word, and it will not take you long to come across a discouraging or distasteful comment.  The workplace.  The grocery store.  Maybe even among your own friends and family.  The facts we must face is that discouragement is out there for Christians.  And it is growing.  And it is becoming more blatant.

I think the key for us is to simply recognize these moments of discouragement, and fight them with prayer.  When we feel discouraged, for whatever the reason, our natural reaction is to stop.  Stop doing what we're supposed.  Lose motivation.  Lose passion.
  Studied hard for a test and didn't get the grade you want?  Natural reaction = loss of motivation in studying for the next test.
  Put in a year of hardwork only to get passed up for that promotion?  Natural reaction = to lose your passion to perform your job at  your highest level.
  Build up the courage to ask a girl out only to get the dreaded "no"?  Natural reaction = to lose confidence and give up on finding the right person.
But if we recognize these moments of discouragement with prayer, turn to the Word, and ask God for help...we can attack these moments with the opposite reactions.  Work even harder at your job, for that next test, build up even more confidence.  This is our chance to not only please God, but to use these moments of discouragement to better ourselves in a way we couldn't have done before.

Final Thought:
Before I found Christ, I worked at a job where I was passed up for numerous promotions, despite being far and away the most qualified each time.  Unfortunately I didn't excel in the politics of the profession I was in, and I let this discourage me.  I stopped caring about my work.  I spent the majority of the day reading sports articles in the office, and just did the minimum to get by.  The result was I hated my job, which carried into effecting my happiness outside of work.
Fast forward to now that I have found Christ.  My first year of law school was marked with results that were lower than expected.  I felt the same amount of discouragement I felt in my job before.  The only difference, was this time I prayed about it.  The result was I came into this second year with a stronger passion than when I started.  I worked harder to get the results I failed to achieve the first go-around.  And through all of this, I enjoyed the work I was doing more, happiness and enjoyment that affected me outside of school.

We can all turn discouragement  into something great.  As I've said, its all around us.  But instead of facing it with fear, face it as an opportunity.  An opportunity to show God how strong your faith is.  An opportunity to use it to increase your happiness.