THE VALLEY OF DISCOURAGEMENT

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Isaiah 41:10 KJV

I think if we are honest, all of us will say that there have been times when we were in the valley of discouragement.  The good news is that God is with us and He will strengthen us and help us.  When we serve Jesus, it makes satan very angry and he will do all that he can do to discourage us from serving Jesus.

We must not let that happen.  We must keep serving Jesus.  No one has ever been as discouraged and been as lonely and ridiculed as Jesus was when He was here on His mission.  It may seem that nobody understands how we feel when we are discouraged, but Jesus understands and He cares about us.

Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote a heart touching and inspiring hymn. “Count Your Blessings”.  “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

The next time satan attacks us with discouragement and he will attack us, we need to immediately ask God to help us.  Many times we stay in the valley of discouragement because we don’t pray and ask God to help us.  I am so glad we have a Heavenly Father Who loves us unconditionally and really cares about us.

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us and for caring about us.  You are a tenderhearted caring and compassionate Father and I love You.  Please comfort and encourage all those who are hurting and discouraged.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 7, 2017