Dealing with Discouragement - Part 3

DAILY BYTE

Ps 23 reminds us of who we are and of who God is and in this way can help us through our moments of discouragement.

‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want’.

The Psalm urges us to remember exactly who God is – that God is our shepherd. This is about remembering our life’s true priorities. Sometimes we allow other things like careers or studies or relationships to become our shepherd - to become that which defines or completes us and when we do so we will find ourselves to suddenly be IN WANT; to be dissatisfied, unfulfilled and not understanding why.

David had to remember that even a great king could not be his own shepherd, and Ps 23 is a powerful reminder that in fact NONE of us can be.

And if the Lord is our shepherd, then it occurs to me we have to remember that we are sheep. Personally, I feel insulted at being called a sheep for as far as I understand it, sheep are dumb, timid, defenceless and helpless. Being called a sheep offends my individual nature, my pride.

Well, quite frankly, sometimes the Gospel can be offensive, especially when it is true and not what we want to hear about ourselves. For if we are honest with ourselves, then we can often be like a sheep and follow the crowd – we can too easily be moulded and shaped by peer pressure. If we are honest with ourselves, then we can often be like sheep and wander off and get lost – we can too easily forget our life’s true priorities. If we are honest with ourselves, then we can sometimes be silly enough to get ourselves into self-destructive habits that negatively impact on the rest of our lives.

The prophet Isaiah said it best: ‘We are all like sheep gone astray, we turned everyone to our own way.’ We all struggle with tendencies towards self-indulgent behaviour and toward blindly following the crowd around us. That’s us – we can be like sheep, and if that is so we can never forget that we NEED God as our shepherd. We need God to guide us, protect us and help us.

So perhaps the very first thing we need to do in order to deal with discouragement is to never forget this – that God should always be our life’s highest priority otherwise we will find ourselves to be lacking in some way (we will be ‘in want’). We need to remember that we are a people who NEED a shepherd – someone to guide us and protect us.

No amount of discouragement should ever make us forget this.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy and Life-giving God, sometimes we become discouraged because we have forgotten how much we need you to be our shepherd. Help us to remember who you are and who we are. Help us to remember how much we need you in all things to guide, protect and fulfil us. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Psalm 23:1

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.