Pastor Motshwaiwa

DISCOURAGEMENT – result in Depression through: 

• Loss of confidence
• Disappointment
• Low Spirit
• Hopelessness
• Demoralization
• Lack of confidence

If devil fail to penetrate your heart – His brings his STRONGEST WEAPON – DISCOURAGEMENT! 

99.9% of backsliders is because of DISCOURGEMENT!

It can cause people to 

• quit on something that God has told them to do,
• it can cause sickness,
• it can lead to sin,
• it can lead to atheism,
• it can lead to bad decision making, and more.

Easier to make commitment its harder to complete the work

Easier to get in debt than to come out of it

Life on itself is not easy

Discouragement is deadly, universal and recurring

CAUSES OF DISCOURAGEMENT

NEHEMIA – During King of Persia, was a cup-bearer (Drink before the king drink) to the king. Learning that the remnant of the Jews in Judah was in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, he asked the king for permission to return and rebuild the wall

NEHEMIA – YAHWEH has comforted, offers hope and many more!

• Book shows us or guide us on how to overcome troubles, Trust in God and Prayer life, Leadership and faithfulness of Nehemiah

When things are completed half – Mid Crisis begins!

Nehemiah 4

• When something takes longer than expected – FATIQUE – Neh 4:6
• This mainly happens when you are HALF WAY TO YOUR DISTINATION
• Discouragement happens easily when you tired – criticism get you easier when tired
• Farmers also rests the land or rotate the crops
• Best Require rest
• 
  
• When something is more complicated than expected – FRUSTRATION
• Any person that build a house or busy with projects knows this!
• Anytime you try to build anything – House, Career, marriage, church – Trash is created
• Time to remove the trash – emotional, material, friendships,
• Rubble part of life – keeps on tripping you up
• Clean the rubble regularly – Confess to God
• If you do not clean it will overwhelm you
• Off load the rubbish to God – Psalm 25:17-18

• When you start to doubt your own ability – SENSE OF FAILURE
• We CANNOT REBUILD THE WALL – Neh 4:10
• Why did I do this – Confidence get lost
• How do you handle failure?
•             Do you blame others                                                                                
•             Self-pity?
• Failure is temporary setback – so that you must have comeback!
• When opposition grows stronger – FEAR
• People hate good change
• When you doing good critics grows – Do not fear criticism
• Threaten you – Neh 4:11 – Do not listen to the enemy – Neh 4:12 “Jews near the enemy – 10 times
• Negative Social Media, TV, Wrong books – Repetition will bring about fear – BAD NEWS – YOU WILL BE DISCOURAGED AND FEARFULL”
• 
  

CURE FOR DISCOURAGEMNT

• Re organise whatever is not working
• Doing things wrong way – Neh 4:13 – You doing the right thing in the wrong way
• Family – Support group
• Nehemiah had already that where misplaced
• Organise support groups
• Re focus on God – Neh 4:14
• Jonah 2:7 – Thought of the LORD
• Psalm 119:25
• Whatever is pure, good report, meditate on those always!
• Resist the discouragement – your choice - Neh 4:14
• Fight for your brethren – Do not give up without a fight
• James 4:7 – Resist the devil
• Whatever is pure, good report

You don’t have to listen to the enemies next to you!

What is unfinished in your life?

 What is build half in your life?

Jeremiah 8:20!

We can try to do all these other things in the flesh, but the only cure for discouragement is trust in the Lord. Discouragement shows a lack of trust. If we fully trusted in the Lord we would not be discouraged. We have to stop looking to what is seen.

Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Proverbs 4:25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

15 Verses for when you are feeling Discouraged

• Psalm 34:17-19  When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
• Psalm 147:3  He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.
• Psalm 55:22  Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
• Isaiah 41:10  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
• Isaiah 40:31  but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
• Isaiah 42:16  And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.
• Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
• Matthew 11:28  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
• Romans 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
• 1 Corinthians 9:24  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
• 2 Corinthians 4:8-9  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
• 2 Corinthians 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight.
• Galatians 6:9  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
• Philippians 4:19  And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Peter 1:6-9  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.