“For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.” (Nu 32:9 AV)
A
few days ago, we contemplated discouragement as an entitlement. We pondered if we feel discouraged, do we
have a right to feel that way? Or,
should we answer discouragement with hope and faith? This morning, we want to look at the agents
of discouragement. In our passage above,
the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh are asking for their
inheritance on the east of Jordan. Moses’
concern is these two and a half tribes settling on the eastern side of Jordan
will not continue over the Jordan to assist the other tribes to take the
land. Thus, the mistake made forty years
ago repeats itself and the nation refuses to cross into Palestine. This source of discouragement is that source
that will not assist or even doubts the viability of a step of faith that another
would be willing to take. This is
perhaps the hardest source of discouragement facing the saint who wants to do
something for God. The naysayer or the contented
is a discouragement to the conqueror.
Children
have a way of dreaming big. They want to
grow up and be something meaningful.
Every child wants that. Eventually,
reality will set in and they will come to realize their gifts and abilities. But who are we to tell a youngster what he
can or cannot become? This dumbing down
of expectations is a cultural sickness.
No longer do we encourage reaching for the stars. Instead, assessment and risk are kept to a
minimum. I saw this in several
ministries. The culture told these young
people they were trapped in their life and the best they could hope for was to
make some kind of living to support themselves and perhaps contribute to
supporting a family. Dreams of a career,
owning a home, or advancing beyond the level of their parents was not a realistic
expectation placed before them. When I
coached high school pitching, I worked under an awesome man. He never allowed those inner-city kids to think
they were trapped. He pushed them beyond
what they thought they could accomplish.
There were no excuses. He worked
them hard. It wasn’t about winning ball games. We rarely did. It was about having a dream and pursuing
it. One step at a time. We may have been worse than the bad news
bears. But if we fielded the ball better
from one game to the next, it was one step closer to our dream. This discipline saw the inner-city high school
baseball team win their first playoff game in over two decades!
I
can tell you, this is one of the hardest places in which a pastor finds himself. When God gives him a vision and he is excited
about it, yet some think it cannot be done or are content in the status quo, he
is discouraged from even trying. What
bothers me, even more, is when I hear someone asses another sinner or saint as
if that individual has no hope of going further. How horrible!
We should never be that source of discouragement which keeps an individual
from change or growth. We are all a work
of grace. We are not the same person we
were when Jesus took up residence in our hearts. If someone has a dream, no matter how
impossible it might seem, there should be an encouragement to pursue that
dream. So long as it is a biblical
one. I can tell you, would rather help
someone get into the ministry because they thought they were called and we both
discover he wasn’t than to tell that person not to even try. Discouragement from a vision is a
killer. It saps the life right out of a
person. As a pastor, I have had this
happen multiple times. After a while, a
man of God who is discouraged simply stops dreaming. When he does, that is the end of any future a
work might have.
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