S1 EP12 - Discouragement
Carla shares about her current struggle with discouragement, and how it actually points to a lack of trust in God's character. She leaves you with the hope of how to renew your strength in Christ.
Facing Discouragement
Carla opens up about recent feelings of discouragement, a common emotion many may relate to.
Identifies potential sources of discouragement, including challenges in marriage, family issues, health concerns, and wavering faith.
Recognizing the Enemy's Scheme
Highlights discouragement as a scheme of the enemy to steal peace, joy, and hinder progress in one's journey.
Emphasizes the enemy's desire for individuals to give up on their calling and lose faith.
Weary of Doing Good
Acknowledges the weariness that accompanies persistent prayers and efforts when the expected results are not visible.
Urges listeners not to grow weary, citing Galatians 6:9 as a reminder of the promised harvest in due season.
Trusting in God's Character
Explores the tendency to base trust on visible evidence rather than on the steadfast character of God.
Encourages a shift in focus, leaning on the character of God and trusting in His sovereign plan.
Waiting Upon the Lord
Draws inspiration from Isaiah 40:31, emphasizing the importance of waiting upon the Lord for renewed strength.
Encourages moments of stillness and worship, allowing the Holy Spirit to minister and transform weariness into tenacity.
Looking Back for Courage
Advises looking back at God's past interventions and answered prayers as a source of courage and reassurance.
Recommends keeping a prayer journal to track God's fingerprints in one's life.
Affirming Truth - "I will trust that God is at work even when I don't see it.
Grounds this truth in Proverbs 3:5-6, highlighting the importance of trusting in the Lord and acknowledging His guidance.
Don't let discouragement steal your joy or push you to give up on your calling. Trust in God's character, wait upon Him for renewed strength, and look back at His faithfulness for courage. Stay resilient in your journey!
Connect With Carla:
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Join In His Image Wellness Collective ---> carlaargeswellness@gmail.com
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] CARLA: Hey friends, welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review.
[00:00:30] CARLA: I am so glad you're here. Let's get started.
[00:00:37] CARLA: Hi friends, it's Carla here. So, I'm gonna be honest with you. The last few days I've been feeling discouraged. And I don't know if that's a feeling that you're used to. Feeling discouraged. Maybe you're [00:01:00]discouraged with difficulty in a marriage. Maybe it's a wayward child. Maybe you're discouraged by an ongoing health concern, your finances.
[00:01:14] CARLA: Or maybe you're just starting to lose faith in your calling and in God's presence. I understand that because I've felt it in the past. And like I said, if I'm honest, I'm, I'm battling through some discouragement right now. And I've come to recognize that discouragement is really a scheme of the enemy that robs us of peace and joy and robs us from continuing to press towards the mark.
[00:01:49] CARLA: Have you noticed that when you're discouraged, you kind of want to give up? That's what the enemy would love for us to do. [00:02:00] Remember in Ephesians 6, 12, it says we do not wrestle against. The flesh and blood, but against principalities and power and rulers of darkness, the enemy wants to rob us of our calling when I'm discouraged.
[00:02:20] CARLA: It sometimes feels like God's not hearing me. I get weary. I get weary of praying for the same thing over and over again. I get weary of showing up to my calling when I don't see the result that I want. I get weary. And I know Galatians 6, 9 says to us. Do not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
[00:02:54] CARLA: And I'm clinging to that verse right now. Let us not grow weary of doing [00:03:00] good. Let us not grow weary of praying over our children. Let us not grow weary. Of showing up as the wife God wants us to in our marriage when nothing seems to be happening. Let us not grow weary of pursuing our calling just because we're not seeing the result we anticipated, the result we want, the result we want to will into happening.
[00:03:32] CARLA: Because isn't that really at the root of discouragement? We're not seeing the movement or the result that we expect. And so we get tired of showing up. We feel like sometimes talking to God is like talking to a brick wall. We can be honest here. We can admit that sometimes in my prayer [00:04:00] life, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall.
[00:04:03] CARLA: Why? Because I don't see him moving in the way that I expect. I don't feel him moving in the way that I hoped. You know, we rely a lot on our senses in experiencing God rather than our faith. And sometimes it's good, I tell you, when my senses are full of being in the presence of God, that's good. But they cannot be the barometer with which we measure.
[00:04:41] CARLA: God's effectiveness. I know there's a worship song and I can't remember the title right now. You guys will have to DM me and remind me of what it's called. But it says, even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop working. I think it's [00:05:00] way maker. That is the truth.
[00:05:04] CARLA: We have to hold on to. Because as discouraged as we are, as discouraged as I am right now, showing up every day in my calling, not seeing things happen the way that I would expect God to move, I have to ask myself, isn't God bigger? Isn't God bigger than my expectation? Isn't God bigger than my ideas? Isn't his will more important than mine?
[00:05:45] CARLA: Now friend, I know, I know you're discouraged right now, like I am. So what do we do? What do we do when we feel discouraged? It's one thing [00:06:00] to admit that we're feeling discouraged. It's one thing to admit that we don't see God showing up the way we want. It's one thing to admit that we're weary. But it's another thing to know what to do, and I really look to Isaiah 40, 31 right now.
[00:06:23] CARLA: What to do when I'm weary, what to do when I'm discouraged. I don't want to grow weary of doing good. I want to have the perseverance to run my race. I want to have the tenacity to keep showing up, knowing in due season I will reap, but I'm weary. In Isaiah 40, 31, we hear. But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
[00:06:55] CARLA: They will Mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and [00:07:00] not be weary. They shall walk and not fade. I need that kind of strength right now. And maybe you do too. And what's the solution? To wait upon the Lord. Sometimes we get so busy doing that we forget the waiting. Oh, but the waiting is hard, Carla.
[00:07:25] CARLA: Yes, I know. I am working out patience every day. The waiting is hard. I mean, think about it in a doctor's office. You're waiting. You're on the other side of the door. You have no idea what's going on behind the door. You have no idea what people in crisis. The doctor is helping and that you're waiting is allowing him to do good works behind the door.
[00:07:52] CARLA: You have no idea what's happening. You're just stuck there waiting and it's frustrating and it's tiring. [00:08:00] But the word says when we wait on God, he renews our strength. When we wait on God, we have the ability to run the race set out before us. When we wait on God, we can walk in faith and boldness and not fate.
[00:08:22] CARLA: Now for me, waiting on God involves bathing myself in worship, not worship in the background while I'm busy doing. But setting time to be still and letting the Holy Spirit minister to me through song, maybe waiting for you is being silent in our prayer time. Sometimes we want to fill up our prayer time with talking, right?
[00:08:53] CARLA: That we forget it's a two way conversation. And sometimes we need to be silent. [00:09:00] I have found in those silent moments often. Encouragement comes my way when I allow God to speak, when I allow God to move, when I allow the Holy Spirit to minister to me.
[00:09:19] CARLA: The truth of discouragement is it comes down to trust. Do you trust God?
[00:09:30] CARLA: Do you trust God? Sometimes I'm guilty of Resting my trust on seen evidence rather than resting my trust on the said fast character of God. Maybe you do this too. I'll trust you Lord when I see you working things out according to how I [00:10:00] expected it. Wow, we really do role reversal there, don't we? We kind of want to become gods ourselves because we want our outcome in our way and in our timing.
[00:10:12] CARLA: And God, you're just here to perform for me.
[00:10:18] CARLA: We cannot put our trust on what we see. Our hope is in who Christ is. If he has called you to run a race, and he has, if he has called you to steadfast prayer, which he has. He is working because that's who he is.
[00:10:45] CARLA: So in your discouragement, I want to encourage you, take it to God, take your weariness to God, take your fatigue to God, take your [00:11:00] discouragement to God, and let him give you the courage to keep going. Let him give you the strength to keep going. And don't forget Galatians 6 9 for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
[00:11:22] CARLA: The enemy wants you to give up. The enemy wants you to doubt God. The enemy wants to doubt you to doubt the effectiveness of your prayers. Guys, your prayers are effective. Your prayers can move heaven and earth. Keep praying. Take the time to rest and abide in God's presence. Take the time to be renewed.
[00:11:48] CARLA: Take the time to be strengthened and then get back about running the race. It's okay to hit pause. You know, we see in the [00:12:00] race track, cars go off to the side and get serviced before they hit the lanes again to race. If you're discouraged right now, if you're weary right now, that's your soul and spirit saying you need to get off and get serviced.
[00:12:20] CARLA: You need to press into the Lord and abide in his presence. You need to be still. You need to wait on God and let the Holy Spirit. Transform your tiredness into some more tenacity to keep going. Yeah, he will do it. He will do it. Another thing that I have found to be helpful when I'm discouraged is to look back at God's fingerprints in my life.
[00:12:54] CARLA: Now, if you keep a prayer journal, this is a great way to do this because then you can [00:13:00]look back and see how God has answered prayers. You can look back and see how God has shown up. Oftentimes not how we expected it because we're ordinary. He's extraordinary. So when he shows up, he does it in extraordinary ways that our brains could not plan out in advance.
[00:13:23] CARLA: I look back at the evidence. I gain courage from seeing how God has shown up. I'm talking to myself right now, guys. I'm talking to myself. I need these reminders that God is bigger. I need these reminders to keep going. I need the reminder that the enemy wants to rob me of my race and my peace and my joy.
[00:13:51] CARLA: And I also need the reminder to shift my trust from Evidence according to what [00:14:00] I want and trust into the character of who God is. Let his will be done.
[00:14:11] CARLA: Your affirming truth today is I will trust that God is at work even when I don't see it, right? That's why we get discouraged. We don't see God working the way we want it, but the truth is that we need to trust that God is at work even when I don't see it. Because God is good. And we go to Proverbs 3, 5 6 for this affirming truth.
[00:14:40] CARLA: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Lean not on your own understanding. Guys, I'm so guilty of this [00:15:00] sometimes. And the truth is, when I lean on my own understanding, I am prone to discouragement.
[00:15:07] CARLA: Because I can't understand I want them to, when I want them to. And I get discouraged, but man, when I refocus that to trusting in the Lord, with all my heart, trusting that he is good, trusting that he is in control, trusting that he has planned and purpose, trusting that he is writing a story in my life that is good.
[00:15:30] CARLA: When I switch my focus from that, what I want to see in my own understanding to trusting God, my strength is renewed. My weariness fades and yes, he shows up to lead and make the past straight. That's one thing you can count on from God. He always shows up. Don't be discouraged. [00:16:00] Don't be discouraged. In due season, we will reap and we can trust God with that.
[00:16:11] CARLA: I'll talk to you next time, guys.
[00:16:18] CARLA: Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram at Karla Arges or at Affirming Truth. Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye friends!