| Things to Live For |
Chapter 11 |
Page 6 |
Then, not only does discouragement weaken us, unfitting us for our best work, but it leads to doubt and unbelief, and oftimes to other sins. It leads to murmuring and complaining, and these are sins which grieve God. It makes men blind to God’s goodness, and oftimes rebellious against God’s will. Many people throw away their chance in life through discouragement. When Norman McLeod was a boy he was much discouraged, and, in a fit of petulance, said, “I wish I never had been born!” His pious mother said, “Norman, you have been born; and, if you were a wise bairn, you would ask the Lord what you were born for.” He took the good advice, and found that God had a noble plan for his life.
“But how can we keep from being discouraged?” asks some one. “When the way is hard, when the burdens are heavy, when the path is through hot deserts, when even brothers make life harder for us, how can we help being discouraged?” There is an answer to this question of fearfulness in the words of the old Hebrew prophet:–
“For though the fig tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines;
The labor of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no meat;
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stall:
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength,
And he maketh my feet like hinds’ feet,
And will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
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