AGENTS OF DISCOURAGEMENT (PART 1)

Agents of Discouragement (PART 1)

There are three major agents of discouragement, which are killers of courage.

 Sympathy

This is killer Primus inter Pares, which in the Latin language means first among equals. That is, among so many others, sympathy is a number one destroyer of courage. The account in Numbers 13:27-33 is a classic example of the negative effect of sympathy. How? The report of the ten spies aroused sympathy and generated questions in the hearts of the people.

Perhaps they were entertaining such thoughts as, “Why are we in this situation? Does God really love us? Does He want to kill our wives and children in this wilderness? Who will help us out? Let us get another captain to lead us back to Egypt, this Moses and his God are out to destroy us. It would have been better for us to die in Egypt. Oh, we are finished!”

Each time you accept sympathy, you get discouraged and feel you cannot handle a particular situation; you feel dwarfed before your circumstances. If you  want to experience victory, then sympathy must be resisted. Self-pity is a curse.

Stop asking “why?” Every “why?” has an answer, and each of such answers carry with it sympathy, which is a seed of discouragement. Rather than ask “why?” ask “How?”   The devil gives answers to “why?” but has no answer for “how?” Any time you ask “how?” God steps in. “How?” questions provoke positive forces to your aid. For instance, when you ask, “How can I get to the top?” The Lord will answer with divine direction.

Consider how Jesus dealt with this situation:

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

                                                      John 9:1-3

The disciples' question sounded like this: “Why is this man blind?” But Jesus dismissed it and said the issue was meant for the glory of God. 

Sympathy is an agent of depression. Remember how Job's friends came to him with their sympathy when he was faced with an adverse circumstance. They sat around him for seven days, silently staring at him, with sadness written all over their faces. They wore sackclothes and had ashes upon their heads. After those spirit-dampening days, they dazed Job with questions which almost set him against God.

Let me sound this warning: your sympathizers are likely to be the very people the devil will use to destroy your destiny. They are trading for the adversary and what they are hawking is a killer. Do not patronize them.

The earlier you reject their sympathy and send them away, the better it will be for you. Your rejection may earn you bad names, but stand firm. Joshua and Caleb turned away the sympathy of the ten spies and confidently presented their minority, but God-pleasing and courage-stirring report —“We are able to take the land.”

The sympathizers' ministry is that of reducing their victim to their own woeful levels. From such people turn away!