God's Tools

It was as if the Lord said, "I dare you."

He may not speak that way to you, but He sometimes gets "in my face." The subject? He dared me to find a time in His Word and His dealings with His children when He guided them using the tool of discouragement.

I'm discouraged. Should I give up? Lord, is this Your way of telling me to quit trying on that project or that pursuit?

Well, let's see. Is that His pattern, to use discouragement as a guidance tool?

Um. Somewhere in the Old Testament it must say that He discouraged the...

No. That's one of the tools most often employed by the enemy of our souls, not God.

If I feel discouraged, I need to recognize it as an emotional response, but never as a message from the Lord. He does not have a slot for Discouragement in His tool belt.

But I know who does.

It changes everything. We tell grieving widows not to make a rash decision about selling their house or moving across country in the early days of grief. It's unwise to radically change your life while in the soul-numbing, mind-fogging stage of grief. Shouldn't I approach discouragement that way, too?

WHILE I'm socked in a fog of discouragement, I should abandon any ideas about changing direction. Discouragement is not the Lord's method of redirecting my life. He has many tricks up His sleeve, but that's not one of them.

When the fog has lifted enough for me to think clearly again, I may choose to redirect. But that will be rational and prayer-hemmed and thought-out...not a result of bowing to an emotion that bears no resemblance to a tool.