He Is Risen: Encouragement for the Discouraged

Many of us go through periods of discouragement. Sometimes it’s how we have been treated: what someone said or did, how we were misunderstood or misrepresented. Sometimes it’s an unhappy work environment. Sometimes it’s our walk with God: guilt, shame, and frustration over sin, the feeling that God has turned His face away, or a lack of zeal and joy. Sometimes it’s loss: the loss of a family member or the loss of friendships. Sometimes it’s medical issues: whether physical suffering or grief at what is being lost.

The other night—after days of feeling encouraged in the Lord—I went to bed feeling very discouraged. I had reached a new low physically and was thinking about what this meant… or at least what I thought it meant.* It felt as though more was being taken from me, and that the list of things I could no longer do was growing. I prayed and went to sleep. In the night I dreamed of worship, and I woke with the thought, He is risen (Luke 24:6)! And that was all I needed. That perspective, that reminder, flooded my heart with joy.

And this has been the theme for me these past weeks especially: that though physically I have been at my lowest, God has helped me, so that I can still say, The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows. I can testify that He is worthy, that He is a wonderful Saviour and Friend, and that I trust Him.

So I want to offer a perspective that I hope may be of some encouragement to someone.

First—and it’s taken me a long time to learn this—when we suffer as a result of what other Christians have done, we can remember the following:

• That, in a real sense, they know not what they do (Luke 23:34) 
• That we can choose to believe the best of their intentions (1 Corinthians 13:7)
• That we will be fully reconciled in heaven (John 17:20-23)
• That this too is of the Lord, which means we can say with David, “So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him…” (2 Samuel 16:10)
• That even if all men forsake us, the Lord will stand with us and strengthen us (2 Timothy 4:17)  

Second, when we suffer from guilt and shame, we can remember the following:

• That our Saviour came not for the righteous but the unrighteous (Mark 2:17)
• That Jesus knew about this too when He went to the cross, and it has been paid for (1 Peter 2:24)
• That our Father loved us long before we had any interest in Him, and He loves us still (1 John 4:10)
• That when we were mired in our sin and had no claim on Him at all, the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20)
• That His invitation is all the warrant we need to come just as we are (Matthew 11:28)

Third, when we suffer loss, we can remember the following:

• That the Father takes a particular interest in the fatherless and widows—and He will be a Father to them (Psalm 68:5)
• That He puts your tears in His bottle; He has graven you upon the palms of His hands, He remembers your troubles, and they are ever before Him (Psalm 56:8; Isaiah 49:16)
• That Jesus is interceding for you (Romans 8:34)
• That the dead in Christ have gained—their race is done, His work in them is complete, and they are now more alive than ever (Philippians 1:21)
• That all things are ours, including the death of loved ones (1 Corinthians 3:21-23)

Fourth, when we suffer through medical issues, we can remember the following:

• That this is for your present and eternal good (Romans 8:28). As Octavius Winslow put it, "it is utterly impossible that anything can be against the best interests of the believer in Christ… the very blessings that the Lord takes from us are but pledges and foreshadows of yet greater and costlier ones."
• That He is with you in the fire (Isaiah 43:2), that you are precious and honoured in His sight (Isaiah 43:4), and that He Himself will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), and that no matter what happens you shall always have free access to Him (Hebrews 4:16)
• That He makes our bed in sickness and knows how—by His presence—to turn a dark and lonely room into a palace (Psalm 41:3; 63:3).
• That though you may forget even your closest family members, you will still know Him and be known by Him.**
• That He is risen, and one day you too shall rise (1 Corinthians 15:20).

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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* In October I was diagnosed with a metabolic myopathy—a rare neuromuscular condition.

** In The Fullness of Christ Winslow tells of a minister on his deathbed. This man did not recognize his wife or children. When asked, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?” he answered, “Jesus Christ! Oh yes! I have known Him these forty years. Precious Saviour, He is my only hope!”

I remember a similar story. More than 20 years ago I met an elderly man named David with advanced dementia. Everything in his room was labelled because he could remember almost nothing. And yet he was always cheerful, always ready with a smile, and loved to attend the worship services offered at that home. When asked about himself and his past, he could remember just two things: that he had once been a pastor, and the day he had been saved. He did not know much, but he knew and loved his Saviour.