When You're Disappointed, Discouraged, Defeated...

When You’re Disappointed, Discouraged, Defeated…

Are you aware of Satan’s deadly devices?

Has disappointment in a person or a situation ever caused you to go into an emotional tailspin?
Have you ever felt you might drown in your discouragement?
Have you ever fallen into a well of dejection and despaired to the point where you were so demoralized that you simply sat down and didn’t attempt to climb out?
Then, my friend, you have engaged in warfare with the evil one, who desires to take you captive; and you have allowed him to penetrate your line of defense with his armoured division and his foot soldiers.
You have done battle with Satan’s Five Deadly D’s and tasted their awful wretchedness.
The first deadly D is Disappointment. To counterattack disappointment you need to launch the Christian’s Strategic Defense System (SDS) of faith that in meekness praises God in every situation by seeing it as God’s sovereign appointment. Change the D of Disappointment to an H, and you have His Appointment.
If you refuse to do this, if you refuse to give thanks in everything, believing that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, then the next deadly D the enemy will launch against you is Discouragement.
To become discouraged is to become disheartened – to be weakened, to lose your courage so that you think there is no way you can win. When this happens, you throw up your hands and say, “I’ll never make it! I’ll never survive. It’s no use, I’ll never get out of this one.”
Unless you deal with discouragement – head it off at the pass – there is no way to be the victor.
Have you listened to the world’s analysis of your condition or your future rather than being strong and courageous believing your God?
If so, then you have found yourself mired in the mud of Dejection.
Instead of the joy of the Lord being your strength, as Nehemiah exhorts his people (Nehemiah 8:10), you are about to faint (Isaiah 61:3). When dejection pulls you down into its depths, you face lowness of spirit and emotional fatigue. The oil of gladness has been exchanged for mourning, and you have not covered yourself with a spirit of praise. Either you praise God in pure, gut-level faith, whether you feel it or not, or you will continue to weaken.
Then you will find yourself in Despair, having lost or abandoned hope. Despair leaves you apathetic; your mind is numb. And if this goes unchecked, you may find yourself acting recklessly, not considering the consequences of your actions. Desperation is energized despair, and in this state you do things which you later greatly regret, but which many times bring lifelong consequences.
Often you see examples of this when people suddenly find themselves confronted by the infidelity of their mate or the demand for a divorce, or when they are faced with financial reversal.
When you find yourself in a state of despair, you need to say with the psalmist,

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence” (Psalm 42:5).

When you are in despair, write down why and then look for a specific promise of God to write next to each cause of your despair. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself Demoralized. And demoralized people run in circles – if they even have the strength to run! They are cast into disorder. They cannot get their act together in their home or in their business affairs or in any of the disciplines of life. Many times they are simply paralysed with fear.
But God has not given you “the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). His is the power, the glory, and the victory; so when the Five Deadly D’s are launched against you, you can be more than a conqueror of this enemy of your soul.

“Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4).