To Encourage You

Matthew 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

The one emotional condition that, above all, is the opposite of what God would have for His followers is depression.  It’s closely related to fear, worry, anxiety, and despair. Although the Bible repeatedly tells us to “fear not” and to “be anxious for nothing,” depression and its relatives are crippling emotions that are among the most common that plague people – both believers and unbelievers, mind you – in this world today.  They’re emotions that tend to take people “off their game.” They are emotions that tie a person in knots, robbing them of confidence, and hindering their walk in this world. 

So, what is the source of all this?  Why do people who were originally formed in the image of God find themselves in such an opposite condition to the joy that God would have for them?  Why such darkness in life? Why would someone be overwhelmed with such negative emotions that they would seek to end their own life or the lives of others?  The Bible addresses this from the very beginning.  The root of it all is sin and its effects, aided and abetted by the enemy of our souls.   This can either be sin we commit, sin others commit that affects us or those we love, or other effects of the Fall on the human condition. 

It all began soon after the Creation when Satan deceived Eve by promising her something better than the joyful and intimate relationship that she had had with her Creator.  As she fell for his deception, she was robbed of her joy.  In its place came a new emotion: fear.  Eve, and Adam who then followed her into sin, felt it immediately, as they tried to hide themselves, and the guilt for their disobedience, from God. And then we see Cain after he killed his brother Abel.  As God confronted him and his sin, His first words were “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:6-7).

That’s always the way it is.  Satan’s only purpose is to “kill, steal, and destroy” and we can apply all three words to what he would do to our joy.  We see this throughout Scripture. We see David, overwhelmed with the consequences of his sins of adultery and murder, as he talks about his loss of joy in Psalm 51.  There he pleads with God to restore to him “the joy of (his) salvation.” We see it in King Saul, as he turns away from God and is tormented by an evil spirit with fits of depression.  Ultimately, he goes to a witch to divine his future. Then as the armies of Philistia close in on him, Saul’s tragedy reaches its climax as he falls on his own sword (1 Samuel 31:4).  And then there is Judas. He loved money more than he loved Jesus. After he sold the perfect Lamb of God for 30 pieces of silver, he hanged himself in despair as the wickedness of his actions overwhelmed him with guilt.  We even see it in the great apostle Paul as he faced overwhelming opposition and trials in his life.  As he looked at his circumstances and was tempted to doubt, he writes these words: “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.” But then these words: “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). 

We see in these words of Paul that although God may permit some of His most faithful followers to be pushed to the brink of despair, His ultimate will is that their faith grow as they endure such trials and be able to ultimately “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4;4). His command to us is “do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6).  He reminds us to be like the psalmist who wrote the following words for our benefit: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:3-4).   Negative emotions: they are the result of the Fall and man’s struggle against sin.  As such, they are a fact of life.  However, in the end, for those who endure, it is the eternal joy of God Himself that they will experience forever.  That’s the promise of the verse above.  That’s what’s in store for those who believe.  But in the meantime, as the enemy tempts us to doubt God’s Word and to either blatantly disobey him, or to fear, doubt, be anxious, and despair in the face of the inevitable trials of life, may God be gracious to strengthen our ability to trust Him and obey.  Like with Eve, Satan continually tempts us to do otherwise as he prowls around like a roaring lion, doing all in his power to rob us of joy. But as we resist him, as we choose to obey our Lord, as we trust our Savior Who came into this world to destroy the work of the devil (1 John 3:8), and as we walk not by the flesh but by the Spirit God has given us, it is joy, that wonderful fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), that we can know right here and right now.