To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, "and then... depression set in" it is from the movie Stripes. Bill Murray had just had his car repossessed, lost his job and his girlfriend in less than an hour. As she walked out the door, he slumped to the floor and uttered that memorable line. I think discouragement was not even a part of his vocabulary.
A very interesting lesson this morning in Sunday School The lesson was titled “When You’re Discouraged”.
The lesson in the quarterly was written by Tara Nye and she used the following parable to open the study....
Once upon a time it was announced that the devil was going out of business and would sell all his equipment to those who were willing to pay the price. On the big day of the sale, all his tools were attractively displayed. Amongst the tools were envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, deceit, sensuality, pride, idolatry, and other implements of evil. Each of these tools was marked with its own price tag.
In a corner by itself was a harmless looking, well-worn, wedge-shaped tool, but it bore a higher price than any other tool. Someone asked what it was. The devil answered “That is Discouragement .” the next question came quickly, “and why is it priced so high even though it is plain to see it is worn more than the others?”
“Because,” replied the devil, “it is more useful to me that all these others. I can pry open and get into a man’s heart with that when I cannot get near him with any other tool. Once I get inside, I can use him in whatever way suits me best. It is worn well because I use it on everybody I can, and few people even know it belongs to me.”
The tool was priced so high that no one can buy it, and to this day it is never been sold. It still belongs to the devil, and he still uses it on mankind.
This lesson really hit me hard....I know I sometimes feel that wedge whenever my best laid plans get pushed to the wayside. I know it is a feeling of pride that gets in the way of me doing the Lord’s will. We all feel discouraged in our daily life, discouraged in our jobs, discouraged when our children don’t do what we tell them to do, discouraged when someone else succeeds without paying their dues, or so we think.
We all need to evaluate the cause of our discouragement and ask God for a fresh vision of his purpose for our lives.
I just try to go with the flow, and not let discouragement turn into depression.
It is a hard battle to fight, that the rewards will be great when the battle is over.
A very interesting lesson this morning in Sunday School The lesson was titled “When You’re Discouraged”.
The lesson in the quarterly was written by Tara Nye and she used the following parable to open the study....
Once upon a time it was announced that the devil was going out of business and would sell all his equipment to those who were willing to pay the price. On the big day of the sale, all his tools were attractively displayed. Amongst the tools were envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, deceit, sensuality, pride, idolatry, and other implements of evil. Each of these tools was marked with its own price tag.
In a corner by itself was a harmless looking, well-worn, wedge-shaped tool, but it bore a higher price than any other tool. Someone asked what it was. The devil answered “That is Discouragement .” the next question came quickly, “and why is it priced so high even though it is plain to see it is worn more than the others?”
“Because,” replied the devil, “it is more useful to me that all these others. I can pry open and get into a man’s heart with that when I cannot get near him with any other tool. Once I get inside, I can use him in whatever way suits me best. It is worn well because I use it on everybody I can, and few people even know it belongs to me.”
The tool was priced so high that no one can buy it, and to this day it is never been sold. It still belongs to the devil, and he still uses it on mankind.
This lesson really hit me hard....I know I sometimes feel that wedge whenever my best laid plans get pushed to the wayside. I know it is a feeling of pride that gets in the way of me doing the Lord’s will. We all feel discouraged in our daily life, discouraged in our jobs, discouraged when our children don’t do what we tell them to do, discouraged when someone else succeeds without paying their dues, or so we think.
We all need to evaluate the cause of our discouragement and ask God for a fresh vision of his purpose for our lives.
I just try to go with the flow, and not let discouragement turn into depression.
It is a hard battle to fight, that the rewards will be great when the battle is over.
1 comment:
I know what you mean. Discouragement is HUGE and is always in our lives. And, we know where it comes from. The enemy uses it all the time to condem us. But we always have to identify it as an attack and remember that there is no condemnation in Christ! Great post and awesome story Bro!
Oh yeah, welcome to the blogosphere!!!
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