Unshackled Moments ~ April 4 ~ Discouragement

Discouragement and self pity can be hard to overcome, and the biggest reason is that they are often based on truth. This is hard. This is harder than it should be. This is not fair. This is not just. This is not going my way. The deck is stacked against me. There is nothing I can do about this. I can not win. These are statements that a mind under discouragement and feeling self pity might think, and there are many many more examples that could be included. And they can all be true, at least in isolation.

When we are in trouble, in pain, discouraged and or feeling sorry for ourselves we often become so hyper focused on the problem and ourselves that we can't see anything else. We can not or do not expand our vision to see the way out, or to see that the problem or the threat is only a small part of the picture. We see the cross and not the empty grave beyond it. If all we see is the cross, the truth is horrible, painful, miserable, unfair and a million other overwhelming negatives. But three days later, all of that was a mere stepping stone to joy unspeakable, victory that can't be lost and all that Jesus lived for. That moment, brief in the scheme of things but surely felt like an eternity at the time, seemed like defeat but when the scene is pulled back and more than that one moment was seen the moment was opposite what it looked and felt like from close up.

Today when we are tempted because  worry or pain to look at us and the focus on the problem, let us turn our eyes off ourselves and onto Daddy. Let us remember that we can only see this moment and not the entire picture and that what looks and feels like evil and death may prove later to be the pathway that brought us closer to our Creator and actually made us more alive.

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