It's All Made Up

Are you wrestling with discouragement? If so, a process has likely been unfolding in your life. In other words, you probably didn’t just wake up discouraged one day. Instead, the enemy has consistently maneuvered you into it.

Before you felt overwhelmed with discouragement, anxiety tormented you. And, before anxiety began to take ground in your life, you may have first started to be increasingly aware of a place in your life where you felt you didn’t measure up. For instance, you may have debt and feel anxiety about how you will manage it because your job has become a place where security is lacking. But, where did this insecurity originate? Why did you start to think your owner, manager, or customers would choose to cut YOU?

Here is something I have noticed in my own life. When I start to struggle with discouragement, the struggle has always been progressive:

Lies → Intimidation → Insecurity → Anxiety → Discouragement

In his self-titled book, we learn Nehemiah had a directive from God to return to Jerusalem -- following 70 years of captivity at the Babylonians’ hands -- and begin to rebuild a wall around the city. As his work started, he encountered several hindrances from people who didn’t like what he was trying to do. Quite frankly, they were doing everything possible to stop him through their usage of threats, hate-filled letters, court injunctions, the distortion of the supervisors’ orders, and more. But, Nehemiah saw through their plan:

I replied, “There is no truth in any part of your story. You are making up the whole thing.” They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with even greater determination. (Nehemiah 6:8-9 NLT)

There it is… The enemy’s plot.

He tells you lies so that he can make you timid, fully intending to make you so insecure that anxiety overwhelms your heart, and you wind up so discouraged that you stop the work! The work that you have been assigned by God to complete!

See the enemy for who he is. Realize he is a liar and the father of such. Talk back to the enemy! Nehemiah replied, ‘You are making up the whole thing.’ And he also made it clear that he would not stop the work as he continued on with an even greater determination (v.9). Hear the grit in his inner will, “I am doing too great of a work, I can't come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3)

It’s time for you to arise out of your discouragement. Choose to no longer stop the work God has called you to complete in the Earth!

I want to help you on this journey, and recently I shared a message that details some of my struggles personally, against the enemy’s battle plan during both this season of COVID-19 and a twenty-year journey as a senior pastor. I invite you to check it out here: "It's All Made Up"