This is entry 1/5 in a series on discouragement.
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. (Ephesians 6:16, ESV)
Someone wrote that when God sends His people into a spiritual battle He sometimes corrects them and sometimes humbles them, but He never discourages them. It can even be said: ‘Everything that humbles and corrects comes from the Lord. Everything that discourages and depresses comes from Satan.’1
In ministry we all face discouragement from time to time. There may be many reasons for this and we should not blame Satan for every negative thing in our lives. But we should also not underestimate his schemes. Our text shows that Satan does shoot his darts at us. He has all kinds of darts on hand. Sometimes he uses the dart of misunderstanding, sometimes the dart of doctrinal confusion. However one of his favourite arrows is the dart of discouragement.
The enemy loves shooting the dart of discouragement at our minds and hearts, because it’s so effective in hindering our ministry and in removing joy from our hearts. Satan wants to make as many of us as possible unfit and useless for the kingdom of God.
Notice that the dart of discouragement is a fiery, flaming arrow! When Satan throws his darts of discouraging thoughts at us, we can be sure that these thoughts are bright and clear. The thoughts that Satan plants in our minds are always wrong, but never stupid! They seem to make sense. This is how he convinces us to agree with his thoughts.
What can we do to defend ourselves? Take up the shield of faith! This means, to look to Christ. Accept and believe what He says and what He wants to be for you in your discouraging situation. We will look at some practical ways to do this in our future devotions.
Look to yourself, and you will always find a reason to be dissatisfied. Look around you and you will always have a reason to be discouraged. Look to Jesus and you will always see a reason to be encouraged and to move on. (Unknown)
