Goodbye, discouragement! Hello, contentment! My deepest prayer for this new year is to trust God more and be more content. To trust God with where I am, on the way to where I’m going. My God is so good, and my future is so bright because I know the One who is the light. The One who lights my way and directs my path. God has given me all that I need and with all of it, I must be content. Discouragement rears it’s ugly head when I think about all that I don’t have. Help me remember, Lord, that you withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Ps. 84:11 KJV). So, my focus this year must be on pleasing God and not myself. Goodbye, discouragement; I don’t want you anymore. Hello, contentment; show me what you have in store.

I will find rest for my soul. You are so heavy, discouragement. You weigh me down. I feel so weary and so tired when I’m discouraged. It’s like having all of your birthday balloons deflated, sucking all the air out of the goodness of life. But God. But God says in Matthew 11:28-30 to come to Him if we are weary and heavily burdened, and He will give us rest for our souls. He never intended for us to be burdened down and carry heavy loads on our emotional backs. All through the Bible, He says to cast our cares, give Him our anxieties, and pray to Him about everything. Then we feel the peace and have the rest only God can give. Life is hard sometimes, but God is still good. He’s still on the throne. He still loves us. He has all the strength we need. God says “those who trust in the Lord will find new strength” (Isaiah 40:29-31). Discouragement, you don’t get to win when God is on my side, fighting for me.

It will happen when it’s time. It’s one thing to know what God has promised in His Word; it’s another thing to be able to wait on those promises. But that’s what we have to do sometimes. With faith and patience, we inherit the promises of God (Hebrews 6:12). God knows what He is doing, and He has a plan for His supply to always meet all of our needs. He has a plan to get His promises to us when it is time. There is a time for everything, and God will make sure we obtain His promises at the right time. Just because it’s taking longer than we hoped, doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. Sometimes I get discouraged and sad while I’m waiting, BUT I must remember that God is faithful and will do what He said He will do. God is honest, and it is impossible for Him to lie (Hebrews 6:18). Don’t stop believing in His promises and trusting in His Word. All that He has promised will happen when it’s time.

I feel joyful when I praise God. “I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord” (Ps 92:4-5). I serve an amazing God. The best thing I can do when I feel discouraged, is to pray. Not just pray for help; but pray with thankfulness because of all that God has done for me. The Bible says it like this: “Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done” (Phil. 4:6). When I feel discouraged, I have to start thinking about all of the blessings God has given me. I have to remember that I am standing in answered prayer: a lot of the things that I worried about and prayed about this time last year, have been answered with a yes. When I look back at the trials I went through last year, I see how God used them to make me stronger. Thankfulness always quiets discouragement, and absolutely brings forth joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength (Neh. 8:10). The joy of the Lord gives me the strength to get up and move away from discouragement and enter into a place of joy and peace.

Double blessings are coming. God said to the Israelites “Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles.” (Zechariah 9:12 NLT). This verse was spoken in a time when the Israelites were in captivity because of their enemies. God wanted them to know that their captivity would end and that they should not give up hope that God would rescue them and bless them.

We will go through trials and storms. We have times when our obstacles and challenges make us feel like we’re in captivity, especially when we don’t see anything changing, and we don’t feel like we’re moving forward. It’s discouraging when we feel stuck in one or more areas of life. I’ve been there many times. In those times, I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed, but things stay the same. I’ll pray some more, asking for strength, wisdom, and really anything that will help me make it through the circumstances that bring me down. BUT one day, I look around and I look at that prayer and see that God has answered it and how he often times will bless me with two blessings for each of my troubles.. 

Job had a time of losses, challenges, and just emotional hurts and pains. When I read his story, it gives me hope because I know in the end, it says “When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes . In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before,” (Job 42:10 NLT). The Bible has other verses in which God talks about blessing us with double, with more than enough, and blessing us beyond our imagination. He is faithful to do what he promises to do. Let His promises encourage us today.

My hope is in God. Psalm 43:5 NLT says “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.” There are so many verses in the Bible about putting our hope in God alone. He is the one who will always arise to the occasion and never let us down. He is constant and unchanging. That’s why hope from God is an anchor for our souls. Hope keeps us grounded. It keeps us steady when life gets shaky and uncertain.

In Romans 5:3-4, it talks about how suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. We may start out with suffering, but we will always end in hope. We not only have hope that He will deliver us from our troubles, but we also have hope that He will work all things together for our good and for His glory. In Riley Clemmons’ “For the Good,” It says: “For the good, for the good. You work all things together. For the good, for the good. Your promise stands forever. You alone are my greatest hope. I trust You on the broken road. You work all things together like only You could. For the good.”

God will meet you (discouragement) wherever you are. Joshua 1:9 NIV says “Have I not commanded you ? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged; for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” This verse encourages me. Feeling discouraged is normal, and it happens to everyone. When we start feeling discouraged, we must act. We must introduce the discouragement to God. We must find the Bible verses that tell us the solutions to our problems. That’s what will stop our feelings of discouragement from leading to being discouraged.

Discouragement increases fear and decreases our level of courage. But God can give us the strength and courage that we need to keep moving forward down the path that God is leading us down. Wherever He leads us, we will meet discouragement along the way. It’s going to happen; but we know it won’t stop God’s plan for our lives because God is greater and stronger than any discouragement we face.

God gives us peace in the midst of trouble. Jesus said “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). There is something to be said about how God gives us peace. It feels magical sometimes. One moment we are worrying and afraid about many things. In the next moment, we are praying about these things and holding on to the promises of God. Then God floods us with His peace. It can all happen in a matter of minutes. When we lay our worries down in front of the throne of God and leave them there, we are free to receive God’s peace.

Peace is the opposite of fear. Fear and peace do not dwell in the same space. The spirit of fear is from Satan, and peace comes from the Holy Spirit. The closer I get to God, the more peace I experience and the less I give in to the spirit of fear. It is wonderful to know that God has you in the palm of His hand and that He is not going to let you go. I need you to know, trouble, that when we are in trouble, we can receive all that God’s Word promises to give us: a refuge, His presence, deliverance, power, patience, perseverance, friends, family, angels, and peace. Please remember, trouble: anytime you go up against God and His people, you will not win.

Psalm 91 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. The whole Psalm is all about the ways in which God takes care of us. Psalm 91: 11-12 NLT says “For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.” I saw this happen in my life last night. In my living room, I was just walking along, and I tripped over my own feet and fell down. My ankle started hurting, but I was still able to walk on it and could tell that it was not broken or sprained and that I did not need to go to a doctor to get it looked at. I am sure that God had an angel prevent me from hurting my ankle in a worse way. Right this moment, I don’t even feel any ankle pain.

God also sends his angels to help us when we face troubles. In 2 Kings Chapter 6, a great army with many horses and chariots surrounded the city in which Elisha lived. The army’s plan was to capture him because he was telling the King of Israel what the army was going to do before they did it. When Elisha’s servant saw the army, he became afraid. Then Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes so that he can see that those that were for them were more than those who were against them. Imagine this: a huge army with so many chariots and horses, surrounding you, all set on harming you. That is enough to make you feel afraid. BUT GOD, showed Elisha and his servant something that they could only see in the spirit realm: Thousands of God’s angels with their own chariots of fire and horses surrounding Elisha and his servant and keeping them from being harmed.

When I was five years old, I was run over by a truck, but I survived. I more than just survived: I walked away from the experience with only a scar on my face and stitches in my scalp. I absolutely believe that there were angels watching over me that day. Not only watching over me, but protecting me from brain damage, a traumatic brain injury, paralysis, and all of the other injuries that I could have had. I am so blessed to be alive today and to have been able to accomplish what I have and to get to where I am today.

P.S. Trouble: I am so grateful that there are angels watching over me and helping me stay safe. You are no match for God’s angels and the strength that they have.

We have talked a lot about the things that God provides us with to help us make it through our troubles, but here’s another one: God uses relationships to help us with our troubles. “Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble” (Proverbs 17:7 MSG). How many times in my life, has someone who loves me helped me when I was having trouble with something? Too many times to count. I honestly believe I have the best friends and fam in the world. They have more than proven their loyalty to me and have let their actions show me their true love for me.

I love my friends and fam and want to be there for them as much as I can. I want to celebrate with them when they get good news, and mourn with them and pray for them when they get bad news. I want to encourage them when they are having a bad day, and talk about the goodness of God with them when they’re having a good day. I have been through some things in my life, and if my testimony can help someone keep going and not give up, then I’ll share it. We need each other. In the words of Tenth Avenue North: “No man is an island, we can be found, no man is an island, let your guard down! You don’t have to fight me, I am for you. We’re not meant to live this life alone!” Trouble, my tribe has my back, and I have theirs.