Daily Devotional

Too many people today are giving up a well-run race because they have become victims of discouragement. You can wake up feeling on fire for God and you can go to bed feeling utterly destroyed and feeling condemned. Discouragement is a powerful dart that the enemy constantly shoots at you, and you need to identify it, fight it and trample it.

Discouragement always comes when you have a desire to move forward in the Kingdom of God or when you've just come out victorious from another battle. Elijah had just defeated the prophets of Baal when Jezebel wanted to have his head. He must have felt great when he, once again, proved that JEHOVAH is the Almighty God. But immediately after that battle, discouragement came and Elijah fled to the wilderness.

Did you see that? He did not run to the highest mountain to call upon God; he ran to the wilderness. That is where the enemy wants you. The wilderness is where Satan has his serpents and his scorpions waiting to finish you off. The wilderness is where the enemy wants you walking forty years of your life, discontent, angry and where he can have you murmuring against God. That is what discouragement does — it drives you into a solitary place where Satan can bring on the rest of his attack.

When you are facing discouragement, find good friends in God who will lift you up and not tear you down. Don't shy away into a solitary place, unless its to a mountaintop to call upon God.

God is not a God of sorrow and gloom, but a God who exhorts and uplifts His people. He is a God who, like the juniper tree, gives rest and shade to the weary. It is the Holy Spirit that can re-ignite the spark within you and make you the light of the world again. If you are facing discouragement, remember that God never leaves His children in the wilderness. He is your Emmanuel — God with you! He will never leave nor forsake you.