Pain... Anguish... Despair... You can't live life on this earth without experiencing a season of discouragement and disappointment. Stop... Read that last sentence again. Did you really re-read it?
No matter if you are in your groove now. No matter if you are making money, taking names and loving life. You will hit a wall. You will. Some people will deal discouragement on a small level and some of us deal with it as full-blown despondency.
It has taken me a little time to get used to that truth. Especially as a follower of Christ. Mainly because I usually think that God's will should exclusively end up in my "happiness".
In my psych statistics class we heard a phrase so much that it was burned in my mind... "Correlation does not imply Causation". What does this have to do with God's plan and happiness? Well...
I used to think that the closer that I am to God, the "happier" I would be. But I have been challenged lately. Now don't get me wrong. Many times as I follow God I find great happiness. But that is not always the case. The point Im trying to make is that sometimes i follow God very hard and still remain in a dark, lonely and discouraging place.
I would even go as far to say that God actually gives us times of discouragement to seek Him and serve Him through hard times because serving through discouragement builds Godly character that cant be built any other way. I am walking through a time like this now. I write this to encourage you that are in a hard or discouraging time right now. God will use this for the good if we can trust Him with our trials.
For further reading check out Romans 5:3-5 Stand firm friends. Pray for me to stand firm as well.
