Psalm 103 – I Will Never Give Up!: Overcoming the Valleys of Discouragement

You know, sometimes I forget that life is a journey. You know, there are mountains and there’s valleys and I try to focus on: I’m a child of God, I’m forgiven, I’m loved, I’m empowered, there’s a call on my life, and that God has an agenda. He has an agenda for you and me as followers of Jesus and He wants to love people, He wants to forgive people, He wants to restore people, He wants hungry people to get fed and little kids to get cared for and, you know, I get excited about that.

It's an exciting and amazing adventure to be a follower of Jesus. And especially when you have that focus and He is using your life. And we are also human and that means we get physically tired or we get emotionally exhausted. We get spiritually discouraged. And what I have found is I just forget that life really is this journey. And there are mountains and there are valleys and when I’m in the valley I usually think something is really wrong. I mean, what is wrong with me? I mean, am I out of sync with God? You know, my life is all messed up.

And here’s what I would say. When you get in one of those, I call them valleys of discouragement, it can be a very, very dangerous place. In fact, I would say that more than all the moral failures or more than getting into some, you know, cult or a hideous sin, the great majority of God’s people, I mean, the massive majority of God’s people that get taken out of commission and aren’t really used and have lost their joy and don’t have this intimate relationship with God and are often very discouraged sort of as with a negative worldview.

My sense is it started very subtly. And they were in one of those valleys. You have been there, I know, we all have. In fact, the encouraging thing I love about the psalms and studying the psalms and, I can’t remember when I discovered this, because as my wife has told me, “Chip, you have very high standards for yourself.” My kids have said, “Dad, you’ve got high standards for everyone! You could make us all nuts.”

But part of that is what I have found is when everything wasn’t sort of really being and doing what I thought it was supposed to, I automatically thought there was something wrong with me. You know, where have I erred? What’s gone wrong? And then as I started studying the psalms, you know, David, a man after God’s own heart, David the warrior, David the king, David that wrote half of the book of psalms, greatly used by God.
And I started reading the psalms and it was like: Life is great, God is all powerful, everything is fantastic.

My life stinks, I can’t believe You have left me, everyone has betrayed me. And I begin to watch that David was a great man of God and you know what? David was human. He had ups and he had downs just like you and me. And I want to start our time talking about that, because I’m really concerned that maybe some of you are a little bit too much like me and that when you have some downs and you have some discouragements or things aren’t going well, you start to either question yourself or you question God or you question God’s plan.

And if you don’t know how to handle discouragement, it can be a very, very dangerous place, because it is lethal. Let me share a story with you about what I would just say is the most discouraging moment in my Christian life probably in the first seven to ten years. And I came to Christ right after high school, college and playing basketball, and college ministry, and then teaching school and coaching and, you know, I had some minor ups and downs. And then this big call from God. I mean, I was so surprised that I’m supposed to be in full-time ministry? I thought that was for other people, smarter people, more holy people than me.

But, okay! You know? I raised my hand and put everything in a truck with my wife and we go to seminary and I’m at about three years in and the schedule, because I wanted my wife to be at home, was pretty much be up at four, four-thirty at the latest, go over to the donut shop, get a cup of coffee, study for three hours, especially get my Greek done, get a carpool, go to school, in between every class run over and study, study, study, read, read, read. Get home at about, you know, four-thirty. Play with the kids for an hour, eat dinner, then go to work from six to eleven.

I did that for three years that was the rhythm. And little by little by little by little by little,
and every month because of just the way the world was working and I had a straight commission job, I never knew if I had enough money to pay the bills. And then it happened to be a time, those first, you know, three, three-and-a-half years of our marriage, we didn’t know how to resolve anger. So, we’re going to some counseling and so stress was at every level.

And I remember sitting in class, in fact, if you have ever read the Ryrie Study Bible, I still remember, it was Dr. Ryrie’s class, a theology class. And I think, over time, physically, emotionally, and spiritually whatever metaphor, I mean, my spiritual tank, my emotional tank, my relational tank, I mean, there just was fumes. And I have never experienced this before or after. And I remember sitting in this class and you know how we talk to ourselves?

I remember just, I don’t know, he was talking about something and there was about two hundred people in this room, you know, one of those rooms that, you know, stair-steps up and I was about the middle. And I’m just thinking, you know, So, this is how You reward Your servants, God? This was in my mind. So, you know, I left a career that I loved, I married a girl that loves God with all of her heart and I make her crazy and she makes me crazy. I don’t have any money, I can’t pay my bills, I live in this tiny apartment, I have moved all the way across the country, I’m away from all the family, all the support. I’m done.

Literally, I mean, I’m telling God, I’m done. If this is what it looks like to be a committed follower of Jesus and this is what you get for being a committed follower of Jesus, I’ve had it. I can’t get up at four, four-thirty, one more time, I can’t rush through dinner one more time, get in my car and make all those calls and hope that someone is going to buy something. And I was just discouraged, discouraged, discouraged. And I was in a stupor. And I use that word, I mean, very specifically because somehow, I’m sitting there and the next thing I get is a tap on my shoulder and I look up and it’s Dr. Ryrie.

And the room is empty. And I’m thinking, where did everybody go or where was I when they left? And it was very interesting. He looked down at me, he was a thin man and wore those wire-rimmed glasses. And he knew me; we had talked a little. And he looked at me in a calm way and he said, “Chip?” “Yes, Dr. Ryrie?” He said, “I want you to go home and get two good night’s sleep, I want you to make sure you have a good meal or two, and then make a commitment to me that you won’t make any big decisions in the next couple of days.”

“Okay.” You know, got in the carpool, went home. And when I slept for a couple good days, I ate a couple good meals, did some thinking, processed it out loud with Theresa. I’m telling you, I came that close to cashing in, I’m just not going to do this. I wasn’t going to betray my walk with God, but this, ministry, this calling. I am done. Now, what I’d like to say is that, you know, I had that one really bad experience and I don’t get discouraged anymore. I don’t struggle anymore, you know, I have mostly mountains and only a few valleys. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have had multiple valleys, I have multiple times, multiple times for different reasons. Maybe it was a betrayal, maybe it was a challenge with one of my kids, maybe it was we didn’t have money again. Maybe it was cancer that we went through, maybe it was a season of ministry where you’ve got to be kidding, maybe it was we don’t have any money and the economy just fell through and I’m responsible for…

I’m telling you, I have had so many times that I have just been so discouraged, but from that experience that I talked about, there was a go-to passage. There was a passage that God spoke to me about that when I get there or when I even get close to there, I go to Psalm 103. And I declare out loud, right? We have a declaration for each of these. “I will never give up.” I will not be overcome by the power and the valleys of discouragement. I will not let circumstances, my emotions, and my fatigue cause me to give up. I will not give up.

And then I go to Psalm 103 and Psalm 103 is the antidote to the discouragement and to the want-to-give-up and how God wants to sustain us in the midst of it. Psalm 103 starts with, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits,” and then he begins to list them, “who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle.”

Notice first who David is talking to. He’s talking to himself. He’s thinking: You know,
I don’t feel like blessing or praising God. I’m not doing well. The context, we don’t know all that is happening, but what we know is that he is talking to himself and saying: David, soul, you need to bless God, you need to praise God right now whether you feel like it or not. And then you need to do it from the heart. Bless the Lord, praise God in my innermost being with all my innermost being.

Get real, share it from your heart, begin to really say, “God, thank You, praise You.” And by the way, it’s a choice. I don’t think he feels like it and when we get here, we often don’t feel like it. He says, “Praise the Lord,” and then he says, “Forget none of His benefits.” And here’s the key, here’s the turning point. When I was sitting in that class, my self-talk, I had listed all the bad and forgot the good, all the problems and forgot all the progress, all the deficits and forgot all the pluses.

And what David is saying here is you have to pull yourself up by the scruff of the neck and you’ve got to say, “Look, you may feel that way. You may be tired, you may be emotionally exhausted, you may be spiritually discouraged. Guess what, welcome to the spiritual NFL. Every saint, every person, every missionary, every pastor, every businessman, every mom, every dad, every student finds themselves in a valley at times. There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re normal, you’re human.

It doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you anymore, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it means you’re empowered, you’re loved, you’re forgiven, you’re a child of God, and it’s really hard right now. And so, what do you do? He says: Here’s what you do. You choose to bless God. And then here’s how. He says, “Don’t forget His benefits.” Jot this down in your brain, will you? There’s power in remembering. Remember, remember, remember. In fact, there’s such power in remembering that God wrote an entire book, Deuteronomy.
And after He tells all the story of creation and all that has happened and the great Exodus. And then He gives them all these rules in Leviticus. Before they could go into the Promised Land, Deuter-onomy: Second law.

And if you read through Deuteronomy, it’s, “Remember, remember, remember, remember.” You know why? Because we forget. And when you’re tired, what you remember is the pain. When you’re discouraged, all you can see is what is not right. When you are spiritually struggling, all you can do is look inward and you get into self-pity. And so, notice the very specifics that he wants us to remember. He says, “Who forgives all your sins.”

If you have your Bible open, circle some of these words so that when you go back and read it next time, you’ll remember. “Who heals all your diseases.” Heals. “Who redeems your life from the pit,” remember? you were saved, “who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things.” Why? “So that your youth” or your vigor, your perspective, “is renewed like the eagle.”

Notice there is forgiveness, that’s a spiritual blessing, your salvation. Then notice He heals your diseases. Physical blessing. Notice there is redemption. That’s eternal life. Notice He crowns you. It’s a picture of God’s favor and blessing and friendships and family and gifts and he’s looking back on his life and saying: I’m going through the mile markers of the major things in my life, what God has done for me.

I don’t feel like it, but I have told my soul, we are having this conversation because my soul is discouraged, my soul is not going to a good place. And I’m saying to myself, Hey, come on now. We need to praise God. Well, where do you do it? Let’s start remembering what He has done. I am forgiven, I am on my way to heaven, I have been redeemed, I have been pulled out of the pit of darkness and I have new standing. God has crowned me with lovingkindness, He has blessed my life, I have experienced His favor, I have experienced His presence, He has done great things, He has answered prayers.

If you want to begin to turn things around when you’re discouraged, remember that giving praise to God is a choice and remember that not forgetting is something you have to do. And so, I literally have a little journal and I write in it when I get discouraged. And I’ll say, “What are God’s blessings?” And I’ll write, “Family.” Then I’ll jot a line or two about: Do I have issues in my family? Everybody has issues in their family, and so do you. But I’ve got a lot of blessings. And then maybe friends. And think about, who are your friends? Who has God brought into your life? Who has been there for you?

And then in my case, it’s ministry. You know, I’m pretty excited about when I look at the positive, God has done a number of things and He has let me be a part of it. Of finances.
Even if it’s hard right now. Think of where most of the world is and think of where you are. I mean, some of these things you can give more thanks for than other times. But I just take these areas: my work, answers to prayer, spiritual growth, God’s comfort in adversity, things He has done in my life.

Often, when I have just a little bit of a discouragement and, you know, this is true of everyone, especially pastors and others, but I don’t get up every single morning going, “Yes, I love God! We are going for it! We are going to make a difference together!” You know what? I have mornings like, yes, I go look at the stars. I have my cup of coffee, I feel really tired, and here’s what I feel like, God, I know You really love me today, but I don’t really, I don’t really feel like reading my Bible and, you know, okay, it was a late night and, oh boy, I started to pray but it’s so superficial. I don’t really feel like praying either.

And what I know is I can say, “Well, I’ll catch You tomorrow.” I’ve done that before. But what I have learned instead is to get a pen out and I open my little journal and I say, “Dear God, I don’t feel like praying today. And I don’t really want to meet with You, but I know that You’re there. And I also know that if I live my life according to my feelings, I’ll not be the man I want, I’ll not have the relationships that I want, and my life won’t ever turn out the way I want. And so, I want to stop right now and I just want to remember some of Your blessings.”

I literally, I mean, I just, I just do this. I’ll put a little dash. “God, thank You for Theresa. She loves me when I’m good, when I’m bad. Lord, thank You for Eric. Thank You for Jason. Thank You for Ryan. Thank You for Annie. God, thank You so much that… And I just yesterday, so-and-so called me and I haven’t heard from them in ages. Lord, thank You that so-and-so dropped in and we had a cup of coffee. Lord, I almost forgot to thank You…”And I just start writing. And I’ll fill out a page and it only takes about ten minutes.

And by the time I get done remembering, even what God did yesterday or if I’m a little bit more discouraged then I’ll flip back maybe four or five days or a week or so of pages because I have written prayers. Oh, You did that, You did that, You did that. If I get really discouraged and it’s like, oh man, I’m in one of those, I’m getting close to the wall and things are kind of bad. I’ll go back and I’ll say, “I’ll read, like, two or three months.”

And what I’ll do is I’ll remember the faithfulness of God. Remembering God’s past faithfulness will empower you to trust Him for the future. That’s what David is doing. You need to remember when you are discouraged, you just choose to do it when you’re discouraged, it will empower you to move ahead, to break through those feelings, and begin to walk with God.

Look at the next two lines. He said, “The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgements, for,” who? “all who are oppressed.” And I think he’s thinking not only for all who are oppressed out there, but for himself. You know, he’s going to say, you know, God has come through for me in the past, He came through for the nation of Israel. And he says, “He made known His ways to Moses, and His acts to the sons of Israel.” The whole nation is sort of the paradigm if you will of God having His heart broken for people in slavery, and how He then delivers them.

And after He delivers them, He takes them through a journey. And then He makes them the people of His own. And He did all these miraculous things to reveal who He was and with Moses, He brought him up very personally and He showed him His ways and so much intimacy that when he left his face would just glow and he had to put a little veil over it so he didn’t kind of blow everybody else’s mind. And David is remembering that that is who God is. After he remembers, then he has a focus on God’s character and God’s heart.

And this is where you really come out of the valley of discouragement and you get your focus off of yourself and your self-pity, off of your circumstances and what makes you upset, off of the people that you think should have treated you better, off of what is wrong with the whole world and how terrible it is. And you get your focus on: what is the God who loves me and who has made all that there is, what is He really like? Even when I’m not very lovable. Verse 8, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”

Could I ask you to kind of lean back and get out of the study mode just for a second and get into the receiving mode, and think about - the word is Yahweh. The Creator, the Shaper, the Sovereign Maker of the universe. The word compassion is He feels what you feel. He understands what you’re going through. And He doesn’t just understand, then He’s gracious, He’s merciful, He wants to help, He is kind, He’s slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. Are you ready? He’s not down on you.

Maybe you have really blown it, maybe you feel far from God and you’re discouraged because you have sinned or you have betrayed someone or you have done something wrong or you fell back into an addiction one more time or you feel far from God or this is the first time in, like, an eon you have been listening to God’s Word or anything and you can feel like, “Oh, you know, I’m unworthy, I’m unworthy!” Yes, you are!
And so are all of us. But the God that you come to is compassionate. He’s gracious. He is slow to get mad. And I love this, abounding, the word is hesed. This is a strong word. This is God saying: My covenant, immovable love for you that will never change no matter what, it abounds. You were made by Him, Jesus died for you, you’re the focus of His affection. And David is moving from trying to get himself to praise God and get off himself to: Wow, I am related to a God who is like this.

And then it’s like he just has to keep going, “He will not always strive with us. He won’t keep His anger forever.” God so wants us to be holy and He so wants to help us, but He is not down on us. In fact, he goes on to say, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, or rewarded us according to our iniquities.” In other words, when you come to God, are you ready? You don’t get what you deserve.

David says His heart, His love, His mercy, His desire to draw us to Himself is so overwhelming that he says, “Even as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His,” there’s our word again, “steadfast, loyal love,” or, “lovingkindness toward those who, who fear Him.” It's just a picture of those who are related to Him. He doesn’t leave when I’m in the valley, He doesn’t leave when I’m discouraged, He doesn’t leave when I’m depressed, He doesn’t leave when I told myself I would never do that again and then I do it again.

In fact, He’s my Father. “Not only has He taken my sins as far as the east is from the west, but just as a Father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” I don’t know how many dads I’m speaking to right now, but most of us have had a dad and I know that different dads have struggled with different things. But I can tell you, as a very imperfect father, I have messed up and I had a dad who struggled who was an alcoholic.

But even through that, my dad’s heart, when I ever came and said, “Dad, I know you told me not to do that, I have so messed up. I am so sorry.” You know, there’s just something, even in a human father’s heart. And I understand there are some ones that were really not good at all. And that’s a struggle and a conversation for another time. But by and large, what David is saying is: I don’t know what your view of this transcendent, all-powerful Creator who spoke universes and billions of stars into existence and, yes, you should be reverentially in awe and fear in the very right sense of that.

But if you think He’s just way out there and you don’t get that He’s as intimate as the next breath, that He understands your struggles, your emotions, your fears, your insecurities, and just as a human father in those moments has compassion on his children, God is infinitely more like that with you and with me. And then he tells us why. Remember I said we are empowered, we are children of God, we are forgiven, you know, we have a mission, there’s an agenda. But I said and we are human. We get physically tired, we get emotionally exhausted, we get spiritually distracted and discouraged.

I love this, verse 14, God has great desires for us, but He is very aware of our humanness. Look at this, “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” God is not shocked when you sin. God is not shocked when you get tired, God is not shocked when you get irritable, God is not shocked when you act in ways that, you know, you – ninety days out of a hundred you’d never act that way, but those ten days over the next year or two, yep! A person shows up that you’re not proud of, God is not proud of, I’m not proud of myself. But God is not shocked. You’re human. Does He excuse it? Does He gloss over it? Does it not matter? No. But He is mindful.

In fact, he goes on, “As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field so he flourishes; and when the wind passes over it, it’s no more, and its place acknowledges it no more.” And for David, this was a real-life experience. There’s a portion of Israel that the hot winds come over and it can be green in the morning in a certain season, they have a special word for it. The hot winds come over and green in the morning and you go out in the afternoon and it’s brown. James put it this way, “Life,” your life, my life, “is like a vapor.” And God understands that in His greatness, in His infiniteness, in His power, but in His compassion and His tenderness that we are human, and we are frail, and we are weak.

I love the apostle Paul when he was talking about his discipleship journey. And, you know, Paul is pretty focused, pretty driven guy, at least I can tell. Thirteen books in the New Testament, you know, I mean this guy gets beat up, he gets left in the water, he gets left for dead. I mean, he’s a pretty focused, hard-headed guy. But when he describes his discipleship relationship, he says, “I was with you like a mother nurturing her children and I was like a father who was encouraging and comforting and imploring you to walk faithfully with the Lord.” I don’t know what you’re discouraged about, I don’t know where you’re tempted to give up, but I can tell you God is eternal and timeless and He never changes. And He knows that we are pretty fickle and that we are pretty weak and it’s a very big challenge and He’s understanding.

In fact, he closes this psalm, my go-to psalm, he says, “But the steadfast love,” or, “the lovingkindness,” that loyal commitment “of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting,” but there’s a condition, “on those who fear Him,” and those that walk with Him and those who have received Him as their Savior and are walking, he says He’s got your back. “And His righteousness,” I love this, “is to their children’s children, to those who keep HIs covenant and remember His precepts to do them.” I have a habit, and if you have listened to me very long you’re thinking, man, this guy is into coffee. Okay, I don’t drink that much, but I start my day with a great cup of some dark roast, usually a French roast. And so, my kids, as you get older, what in the world do you buy for your dad for Christmas or what do you get him? You know, I don’t want ties. I don’t wear ties hardly ever, or... I mean, there’s just almost nothing you can get for a dad. They are really hard to buy for. And, you know, maybe I’ll get some golf balls or, you know, I’ll get a certificate to go to dinner or something.

But they want to do something personal, so it started a number of years ago. And it was so cool, I got a mug, and it was a picture, of me and my three boys. And then literally, I have a, like, one or two other mugs where picture of my boys, you know, like, five years later, ten years later. And then the other kids were sort of getting into it. And so, I have a
picture from one of my other kids, with all of their kids, all over the mug. And so, every morning when I get up you know, I see my family. And then I got one that is really interesting. It was from my daughter. It’s a picture of her and the kids, her husband, and on the bottom of it, it has this verse. And every time I pick up that cup, it says this. It says, “The Lord’s lovingkindness is [from] everlasting to everlasting to those who fear Him and His righteousness - His righteousness - is to the children’s children.” And so, I pray for them and I remember how blessed I am.

And I want you to know that I declare in my weakest moments, “I will not give up.” I will not quit. And if you’re going to be bold and courageous, if you’re going to be that empowered, forgiven, loved, greatly gifted child of God who fulfills an agenda where you’re His eyes and you’re His feet and you’re His hands and you do what He wants you to do and there will be great reward and great joy, there’s going to be valleys. And when there are valleys then you need to:
• talk to yourself and
• you need to praise God when you don’t feel like it.
• And you need to thank Him.
• And you can do that by remembering what He has done
• that will lead you to remembering what He’s like,
• and that will lead you to a new perspective.

And sometimes, God will take – are you ready for this? Your greatest moments of discouragement and your weakness and He will flip them in a way that brings about the most powerful experiences you may ever have in your life. And so, I want to close with a story that happened just a few years ago it was in the pandemic, right? So, a lot of us were struggling, a lot of us got discouraged. I happened to be, it was going to be on my way to China, we had been doing a lot of ministry, I was excited. It was like my seventh trip in about three years. And the Lord had opened so many doors.

COVID comes, it gets canceled, because of where I live in California, if you walked outside alone without a mask it was like you’re going to get called into the police or something. I mean, it was crazy. And some people are rule-keepers and some people are rule-breakers. My personality type is I’m a rule breaker. And, I mean, I got frustrated.

And so, I can’t go. And then pretty soon, you cannot see your kids, you cannot see your grandkids. And so, I’m getting ticked. And if you get really, really, really mad and you have done any work in psychology, you know that anger turned inward turns to depression. And I went from being discouraged by the first six months, I got depressed. And when you get really, really angry, the Bible is real clear too, that if it’s unresolved, you give a foothold to the enemy.

I found myself in one of the darkest times about six months in. So much so that I called my closest friend who has known me for forty years and I said, “AC, there’s stuff going in my mind that I just can’t believe. And I’m fighting and I’m praying and I’m fasting and I can’t get rid of it and they are terrible thoughts.” And I mean, for like thirty-five minutes I shared as honestly as I have with anyone ever.

And he said, “I’ve got you. I am going to pray.” He called me every day for the next seven or eight days and then texted me every day after that. So, by the way, when you’re discouraged, you need a friend, you need a mentor. And then I remembered this passage and the principles of this passage. And I did something that I didn’t want to do. And out of it I have developed a, sort of, overcoming discouragement steps one, two, three.

Step One: I feel terrible, I am angry, it’s really dark, I don’t even want to get out of the chair, I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to read, I don’t want to pray. I want to whine. When you get depressed it’s like darkness comes over you – it’s really scary. And some of you understand, I mean, it gets really, these are such dark thoughts and you think, Where might this go? And you try and fight. And somehow, I pulled myself up and I went out and I got on the elliptical until I was just sweating profusely because I’m thinking, Step one: get your endorphins working and see if you can get your body to give you some encouragement.

Step Two: okay Psalm 103, here we go. So, I walk outside, I’m walking around the block. You know, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me,” I mean, loud around no one. And I didn’t want to. And you can tell why I don’t do a lot of music. But I did to God. And then the third was after a good workout where I get really sweaty, and praising God, the third thing was find someone who needs help more than you.

And so, I came in after all of that and the TV was on and the news. And you know how terrible everything was. And they showed pictures of Egypt and all that was happening in Egypt at the time with the pandemic. And I have a very close friend who is in charge of all the Protestant churches. And I thought, Oh man, Dr. Zaki, I wonder how he’s doing. I didn’t want to call him, I didn’t want to encourage him, but, okay, okay. Work out, praise God when you don’t feel like it, go help someone who is in worse shape than you. Got a Zoom call with him the next day, “Dr. Zaki, how are you doing?”

He goes, “Well, my family and I are okay, I think the government is doing the best they can, the churches are barely surviving. Chip, it’s horrendous. Markets are closed, they can’t get food, the people can’t come,” And as he said that, because I had been thinking, You know, God, You’ve got something to say in this pandemic. And I said in passing, “Well, you know, I’m thinking about a series called The A.R.T. of Survival.

And he jumped in, “Send it to me!” Because I had done pastor training and some stuff there. I said, “No, no, Dr. Zaki, you don’t understand. I’m thinking about a series called The A.R.T. of Survival,” and it was from James where there’s an attitude, “Consider it all joy,” there’s a resource: supernatural wisdom to get through whatever. At this point, I’m thinking it and studying it better than I’m living it. And then there’s a theology, of all things, about discouragement. And something happened. Got off that Zoom call, had the head of our international on it, I just wanted to introduce them, and all of a sudden, all the self-pity, all the anger, all the me, all the down, I mean, it was like, God, I don’t have room for this. Those people are dying. Those pastors are in desperate, desperate need.

And I made a couple phone calls and had a friend come and put PVC pipe up and we stretched some fabric over it so it looked like a brick wall and got two cameras and Thursday I started studying. By Monday I filmed it, three, little three-part series. By Friday they had it in Egypt. By the next Friday they had it dubbed and translated and then I had a meeting with all the pastors. I’ll never forget, you know, one of those Zoom calls, you know, they have the pages? It was just page after page after page after page. And I gave sort of my three-part series in one message and then they asked questions for an hour and a half.

And we got done and my friend said, “This is not just for Egypt.” And all I can tell you is out of brokenness, out of weakness, out of discouragement, out of depression, when you take the counsel, “I will never give up,” and in your weakness just do what you can. All I can tell you is that message went all around the world. I don’t even know how many countries. Twenty-six, twenty-seven languages. And pastors all around the globe and their testimony was, going through this, “I won’t quit.” What is it that God wants to do to take your discouragement, your self-focus, your current valley, lift you up, and maybe even use it in such a way that His power would be revealed in your weakness?
You know, sometimes I forget that life is a journey. You know, there are mountains and there’s valleys and I try to focus on: I’m a child of God, I’m forgiven, I’m loved, I’m empowered, there’s a call on my life, and that God has an agenda. He has an agenda for you and me as followers of Jesus and He wants to love people, He wants to forgive people, He wants to restore people, He wants hungry people to get fed and little kids to get cared for and, you know, I get excited about that.

It's an exciting and amazing adventure to be a follower of Jesus. And especially when you have that focus and He is using your life. And we are also human and that means we get physically tired or we get emotionally exhausted. We get spiritually discouraged. And what I have found is I just forget that life really is this journey. And there are mountains and there are valleys and when I’m in the valley I usually think something is really wrong. I mean, what is wrong with me? I mean, am I out of sync with God? You know, my life is all messed up.

And here’s what I would say. When you get in one of those, I call them valleys of discouragement, it can be a very, very dangerous place. In fact, I would say that more than all the moral failures or more than getting into some, you know, cult or a hideous sin, the great majority of God’s people, I mean, the massive majority of God’s people that get taken out of commission and aren’t really used and have lost their joy and don’t have this intimate relationship with God and are often very discouraged sort of as with a negative worldview.

My sense is it started very subtly. And they were in one of those valleys. You have been there, I know, we all have. In fact, the encouraging thing I love about the psalms and studying the psalms and, I can’t remember when I discovered this, because as my wife has told me, “Chip, you have very high standards for yourself.” My kids have said, “Dad, you’ve got high standards for everyone! You could make us all nuts.”

But part of that is what I have found is when everything wasn’t sort of really being and doing what I thought it was supposed to, I automatically thought there was something wrong with me. You know, where have I erred? What’s gone wrong? And then as I started studying the psalms, you know, David, a man after God’s own heart, David the warrior, David the king, David that wrote half of the book of psalms, greatly used by God.
And I started reading the psalms and it was like: Life is great, God is all powerful, everything is fantastic.

My life stinks, I can’t believe You have left me, everyone has betrayed me. And I begin to watch that David was a great man of God and you know what? David was human. He had ups and he had downs just like you and me. And I want to start our time talking about that, because I’m really concerned that maybe some of you are a little bit too much like me and that when you have some downs and you have some discouragements or things aren’t going well, you start to either question yourself or you question God or you question God’s plan.

And if you don’t know how to handle discouragement, it can be a very, very dangerous place, because it is lethal. Let me share a story with you about what I would just say is the most discouraging moment in my Christian life probably in the first seven to ten years. And I came to Christ right after high school, college and playing basketball, and college ministry, and then teaching school and coaching and, you know, I had some minor ups and downs. And then this big call from God. I mean, I was so surprised that I’m supposed to be in full-time ministry? I thought that was for other people, smarter people, more holy people than me.

But, okay! You know? I raised my hand and put everything in a truck with my wife and we go to seminary and I’m at about three years in and the schedule, because I wanted my wife to be at home, was pretty much be up at four, four-thirty at the latest, go over to the donut shop, get a cup of coffee, study for three hours, especially get my Greek done, get a carpool, go to school, in between every class run over and study, study, study, read, read, read. Get home at about, you know, four-thirty. Play with the kids for an hour, eat dinner, then go to work from six to eleven.

I did that for three years that was the rhythm. And little by little by little by little by little,
and every month because of just the way the world was working and I had a straight commission job, I never knew if I had enough money to pay the bills. And then it happened to be a time, those first, you know, three, three-and-a-half years of our marriage, we didn’t know how to resolve anger. So, we’re going to some counseling and so stress was at every level.

And I remember sitting in class, in fact, if you have ever read the Ryrie Study Bible, I still remember, it was Dr. Ryrie’s class, a theology class. And I think, over time, physically, emotionally, and spiritually whatever metaphor, I mean, my spiritual tank, my emotional tank, my relational tank, I mean, there just was fumes. And I have never experienced this before or after. And I remember sitting in this class and you know how we talk to ourselves?

I remember just, I don’t know, he was talking about something and there was about two hundred people in this room, you know, one of those rooms that, you know, stair-steps up and I was about the middle. And I’m just thinking, you know, So, this is how You reward Your servants, God? This was in my mind. So, you know, I left a career that I loved, I married a girl that loves God with all of her heart and I make her crazy and she makes me crazy. I don’t have any money, I can’t pay my bills, I live in this tiny apartment, I have moved all the way across the country, I’m away from all the family, all the support. I’m done.

Literally, I mean, I’m telling God, I’m done. If this is what it looks like to be a committed follower of Jesus and this is what you get for being a committed follower of Jesus, I’ve had it. I can’t get up at four, four-thirty, one more time, I can’t rush through dinner one more time, get in my car and make all those calls and hope that someone is going to buy something. And I was just discouraged, discouraged, discouraged. And I was in a stupor. And I use that word, I mean, very specifically because somehow, I’m sitting there and the next thing I get is a tap on my shoulder and I look up and it’s Dr. Ryrie.

And the room is empty. And I’m thinking, where did everybody go or where was I when they left? And it was very interesting. He looked down at me, he was a thin man and wore those wire-rimmed glasses. And he knew me; we had talked a little. And he looked at me in a calm way and he said, “Chip?” “Yes, Dr. Ryrie?” He said, “I want you to go home and get two good night’s sleep, I want you to make sure you have a good meal or two, and then make a commitment to me that you won’t make any big decisions in the next couple of days.”

“Okay.” You know, got in the carpool, went home. And when I slept for a couple good days, I ate a couple good meals, did some thinking, processed it out loud with Theresa. I’m telling you, I came that close to cashing in, I’m just not going to do this. I wasn’t going to betray my walk with God, but this, ministry, this calling. I am done. Now, what I’d like to say is that, you know, I had that one really bad experience and I don’t get discouraged anymore. I don’t struggle anymore, you know, I have mostly mountains and only a few valleys. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have had multiple valleys, I have multiple times, multiple times for different reasons. Maybe it was a betrayal, maybe it was a challenge with one of my kids, maybe it was we didn’t have money again. Maybe it was cancer that we went through, maybe it was a season of ministry where you’ve got to be kidding, maybe it was we don’t have any money and the economy just fell through and I’m responsible for…

I’m telling you, I have had so many times that I have just been so discouraged, but from that experience that I talked about, there was a go-to passage. There was a passage that God spoke to me about that when I get there or when I even get close to there, I go to Psalm 103. And I declare out loud, right? We have a declaration for each of these. “I will never give up.” I will not be overcome by the power and the valleys of discouragement. I will not let circumstances, my emotions, and my fatigue cause me to give up. I will not give up.

And then I go to Psalm 103 and Psalm 103 is the antidote to the discouragement and to the want-to-give-up and how God wants to sustain us in the midst of it. Psalm 103 starts with, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits,” and then he begins to list them, “who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like an eagle.”

Notice first who David is talking to. He’s talking to himself. He’s thinking: You know,
I don’t feel like blessing or praising God. I’m not doing well. The context, we don’t know all that is happening, but what we know is that he is talking to himself and saying: David, soul, you need to bless God, you need to praise God right now whether you feel like it or not. And then you need to do it from the heart. Bless the Lord, praise God in my innermost being with all my innermost being.

Get real, share it from your heart, begin to really say, “God, thank You, praise You.” And by the way, it’s a choice. I don’t think he feels like it and when we get here, we often don’t feel like it. He says, “Praise the Lord,” and then he says, “Forget none of His benefits.” And here’s the key, here’s the turning point. When I was sitting in that class, my self-talk, I had listed all the bad and forgot the good, all the problems and forgot all the progress, all the deficits and forgot all the pluses.

And what David is saying here is you have to pull yourself up by the scruff of the neck and you’ve got to say, “Look, you may feel that way. You may be tired, you may be emotionally exhausted, you may be spiritually discouraged. Guess what, welcome to the spiritual NFL. Every saint, every person, every missionary, every pastor, every businessman, every mom, every dad, every student finds themselves in a valley at times. There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re normal, you’re human.

It doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you anymore, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it means you’re empowered, you’re loved, you’re forgiven, you’re a child of God, and it’s really hard right now. And so, what do you do? He says: Here’s what you do. You choose to bless God. And then here’s how. He says, “Don’t forget His benefits.” Jot this down in your brain, will you? There’s power in remembering. Remember, remember, remember. In fact, there’s such power in remembering that God wrote an entire book, Deuteronomy.
And after He tells all the story of creation and all that has happened and the great Exodus. And then He gives them all these rules in Leviticus. Before they could go into the Promised Land, Deuter-onomy: Second law.

And if you read through Deuteronomy, it’s, “Remember, remember, remember, remember.” You know why? Because we forget. And when you’re tired, what you remember is the pain. When you’re discouraged, all you can see is what is not right. When you are spiritually struggling, all you can do is look inward and you get into self-pity. And so, notice the very specifics that he wants us to remember. He says, “Who forgives all your sins.”

If you have your Bible open, circle some of these words so that when you go back and read it next time, you’ll remember. “Who heals all your diseases.” Heals. “Who redeems your life from the pit,” remember? you were saved, “who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things.” Why? “So that your youth” or your vigor, your perspective, “is renewed like the eagle.”

Notice there is forgiveness, that’s a spiritual blessing, your salvation. Then notice He heals your diseases. Physical blessing. Notice there is redemption. That’s eternal life. Notice He crowns you. It’s a picture of God’s favor and blessing and friendships and family and gifts and he’s looking back on his life and saying: I’m going through the mile markers of the major things in my life, what God has done for me.

I don’t feel like it, but I have told my soul, we are having this conversation because my soul is discouraged, my soul is not going to a good place. And I’m saying to myself, Hey, come on now. We need to praise God. Well, where do you do it? Let’s start remembering what He has done. I am forgiven, I am on my way to heaven, I have been redeemed, I have been pulled out of the pit of darkness and I have new standing. God has crowned me with lovingkindness, He has blessed my life, I have experienced His favor, I have experienced His presence, He has done great things, He has answered prayers.

If you want to begin to turn things around when you’re discouraged, remember that giving praise to God is a choice and remember that not forgetting is something you have to do. And so, I literally have a little journal and I write in it when I get discouraged. And I’ll say, “What are God’s blessings?” And I’ll write, “Family.” Then I’ll jot a line or two about: Do I have issues in my family? Everybody has issues in their family, and so do you. But I’ve got a lot of blessings. And then maybe friends. And think about, who are your friends? Who has God brought into your life? Who has been there for you?

And then in my case, it’s ministry. You know, I’m pretty excited about when I look at the positive, God has done a number of things and He has let me be a part of it. Of finances.
Even if it’s hard right now. Think of where most of the world is and think of where you are. I mean, some of these things you can give more thanks for than other times. But I just take these areas: my work, answers to prayer, spiritual growth, God’s comfort in adversity, things He has done in my life.

Often, when I have just a little bit of a discouragement and, you know, this is true of everyone, especially pastors and others, but I don’t get up every single morning going, “Yes, I love God! We are going for it! We are going to make a difference together!” You know what? I have mornings like, yes, I go look at the stars. I have my cup of coffee, I feel really tired, and here’s what I feel like, God, I know You really love me today, but I don’t really, I don’t really feel like reading my Bible and, you know, okay, it was a late night and, oh boy, I started to pray but it’s so superficial. I don’t really feel like praying either.

And what I know is I can say, “Well, I’ll catch You tomorrow.” I’ve done that before. But what I have learned instead is to get a pen out and I open my little journal and I say, “Dear God, I don’t feel like praying today. And I don’t really want to meet with You, but I know that You’re there. And I also know that if I live my life according to my feelings, I’ll not be the man I want, I’ll not have the relationships that I want, and my life won’t ever turn out the way I want. And so, I want to stop right now and I just want to remember some of Your blessings.”

I literally, I mean, I just, I just do this. I’ll put a little dash. “God, thank You for Theresa. She loves me when I’m good, when I’m bad. Lord, thank You for Eric. Thank You for Jason. Thank You for Ryan. Thank You for Annie. God, thank You so much that… And I just yesterday, so-and-so called me and I haven’t heard from them in ages. Lord, thank You that so-and-so dropped in and we had a cup of coffee. Lord, I almost forgot to thank You…”And I just start writing. And I’ll fill out a page and it only takes about ten minutes.

And by the time I get done remembering, even what God did yesterday or if I’m a little bit more discouraged then I’ll flip back maybe four or five days or a week or so of pages because I have written prayers. Oh, You did that, You did that, You did that. If I get really discouraged and it’s like, oh man, I’m in one of those, I’m getting close to the wall and things are kind of bad. I’ll go back and I’ll say, “I’ll read, like, two or three months.”

And what I’ll do is I’ll remember the faithfulness of God. Remembering God’s past faithfulness will empower you to trust Him for the future. That’s what David is doing. You need to remember when you are discouraged, you just choose to do it when you’re discouraged, it will empower you to move ahead, to break through those feelings, and begin to walk with God.

Look at the next two lines. He said, “The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgements, for,” who? “all who are oppressed.” And I think he’s thinking not only for all who are oppressed out there, but for himself. You know, he’s going to say, you know, God has come through for me in the past, He came through for the nation of Israel. And he says, “He made known His ways to Moses, and His acts to the sons of Israel.” The whole nation is sort of the paradigm if you will of God having His heart broken for people in slavery, and how He then delivers them.

And after He delivers them, He takes them through a journey. And then He makes them the people of His own. And He did all these miraculous things to reveal who He was and with Moses, He brought him up very personally and He showed him His ways and so much intimacy that when he left his face would just glow and he had to put a little veil over it so he didn’t kind of blow everybody else’s mind. And David is remembering that that is who God is. After he remembers, then he has a focus on God’s character and God’s heart.

And this is where you really come out of the valley of discouragement and you get your focus off of yourself and your self-pity, off of your circumstances and what makes you upset, off of the people that you think should have treated you better, off of what is wrong with the whole world and how terrible it is. And you get your focus on: what is the God who loves me and who has made all that there is, what is He really like? Even when I’m not very lovable. Verse 8, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”

Could I ask you to kind of lean back and get out of the study mode just for a second and get into the receiving mode, and think about - the word is Yahweh. The Creator, the Shaper, the Sovereign Maker of the universe. The word compassion is He feels what you feel. He understands what you’re going through. And He doesn’t just understand, then He’s gracious, He’s merciful, He wants to help, He is kind, He’s slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. Are you ready? He’s not down on you.

Maybe you have really blown it, maybe you feel far from God and you’re discouraged because you have sinned or you have betrayed someone or you have done something wrong or you fell back into an addiction one more time or you feel far from God or this is the first time in, like, an eon you have been listening to God’s Word or anything and you can feel like, “Oh, you know, I’m unworthy, I’m unworthy!” Yes, you are!
And so are all of us. But the God that you come to is compassionate. He’s gracious. He is slow to get mad. And I love this, abounding, the word is hesed. This is a strong word. This is God saying: My covenant, immovable love for you that will never change no matter what, it abounds. You were made by Him, Jesus died for you, you’re the focus of His affection. And David is moving from trying to get himself to praise God and get off himself to: Wow, I am related to a God who is like this.

And then it’s like he just has to keep going, “He will not always strive with us. He won’t keep His anger forever.” God so wants us to be holy and He so wants to help us, but He is not down on us. In fact, he goes on to say, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, or rewarded us according to our iniquities.” In other words, when you come to God, are you ready? You don’t get what you deserve.

David says His heart, His love, His mercy, His desire to draw us to Himself is so overwhelming that he says, “Even as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His,” there’s our word again, “steadfast, loyal love,” or, “lovingkindness toward those who, who fear Him.” It's just a picture of those who are related to Him. He doesn’t leave when I’m in the valley, He doesn’t leave when I’m discouraged, He doesn’t leave when I’m depressed, He doesn’t leave when I told myself I would never do that again and then I do it again.

In fact, He’s my Father. “Not only has He taken my sins as far as the east is from the west, but just as a Father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.” I don’t know how many dads I’m speaking to right now, but most of us have had a dad and I know that different dads have struggled with different things. But I can tell you, as a very imperfect father, I have messed up and I had a dad who struggled who was an alcoholic.

But even through that, my dad’s heart, when I ever came and said, “Dad, I know you told me not to do that, I have so messed up. I am so sorry.” You know, there’s just something, even in a human father’s heart. And I understand there are some ones that were really not good at all. And that’s a struggle and a conversation for another time. But by and large, what David is saying is: I don’t know what your view of this transcendent, all-powerful Creator who spoke universes and billions of stars into existence and, yes, you should be reverentially in awe and fear in the very right sense of that.

But if you think He’s just way out there and you don’t get that He’s as intimate as the next breath, that He understands your struggles, your emotions, your fears, your insecurities, and just as a human father in those moments has compassion on his children, God is infinitely more like that with you and with me. And then he tells us why. Remember I said we are empowered, we are children of God, we are forgiven, you know, we have a mission, there’s an agenda. But I said and we are human. We get physically tired, we get emotionally exhausted, we get spiritually distracted and discouraged.

I love this, verse 14, God has great desires for us, but He is very aware of our humanness. Look at this, “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” God is not shocked when you sin. God is not shocked when you get tired, God is not shocked when you get irritable, God is not shocked when you act in ways that, you know, you – ninety days out of a hundred you’d never act that way, but those ten days over the next year or two, yep! A person shows up that you’re not proud of, God is not proud of, I’m not proud of myself. But God is not shocked. You’re human. Does He excuse it? Does He gloss over it? Does it not matter? No. But He is mindful.

In fact, he goes on, “As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field so he flourishes; and when the wind passes over it, it’s no more, and its place acknowledges it no more.” And for David, this was a real-life experience. There’s a portion of Israel that the hot winds come over and it can be green in the morning in a certain season, they have a special word for it. The hot winds come over and green in the morning and you go out in the afternoon and it’s brown. James put it this way, “Life,” your life, my life, “is like a vapor.” And God understands that in His greatness, in His infiniteness, in His power, but in His compassion and His tenderness that we are human, and we are frail, and we are weak.

I love the apostle Paul when he was talking about his discipleship journey. And, you know, Paul is pretty focused, pretty driven guy, at least I can tell. Thirteen books in the New Testament, you know, I mean this guy gets beat up, he gets left in the water, he gets left for dead. I mean, he’s a pretty focused, hard-headed guy. But when he describes his discipleship relationship, he says, “I was with you like a mother nurturing her children and I was like a father who was encouraging and comforting and imploring you to walk faithfully with the Lord.” I don’t know what you’re discouraged about, I don’t know where you’re tempted to give up, but I can tell you God is eternal and timeless and He never changes. And He knows that we are pretty fickle and that we are pretty weak and it’s a very big challenge and He’s understanding.

In fact, he closes this psalm, my go-to psalm, he says, “But the steadfast love,” or, “the lovingkindness,” that loyal commitment “of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting,” but there’s a condition, “on those who fear Him,” and those that walk with Him and those who have received Him as their Savior and are walking, he says He’s got your back. “And His righteousness,” I love this, “is to their children’s children, to those who keep HIs covenant and remember His precepts to do them.” I have a habit, and if you have listened to me very long you’re thinking, man, this guy is into coffee. Okay, I don’t drink that much, but I start my day with a great cup of some dark roast, usually a French roast. And so, my kids, as you get older, what in the world do you buy for your dad for Christmas or what do you get him? You know, I don’t want ties. I don’t wear ties hardly ever, or... I mean, there’s just almost nothing you can get for a dad. They are really hard to buy for. And, you know, maybe I’ll get some golf balls or, you know, I’ll get a certificate to go to dinner or something.

But they want to do something personal, so it started a number of years ago. And it was so cool, I got a mug, and it was a picture, of me and my three boys. And then literally, I have a, like, one or two other mugs where picture of my boys, you know, like, five years later, ten years later. And then the other kids were sort of getting into it. And so, I have a
picture from one of my other kids, with all of their kids, all over the mug. And so, every morning when I get up you know, I see my family. And then I got one that is really interesting. It was from my daughter. It’s a picture of her and the kids, her husband, and on the bottom of it, it has this verse. And every time I pick up that cup, it says this. It says, “The Lord’s lovingkindness is [from] everlasting to everlasting to those who fear Him and His righteousness - His righteousness - is to the children’s children.” And so, I pray for them and I remember how blessed I am.

And I want you to know that I declare in my weakest moments, “I will not give up.” I will not quit. And if you’re going to be bold and courageous, if you’re going to be that empowered, forgiven, loved, greatly gifted child of God who fulfills an agenda where you’re His eyes and you’re His feet and you’re His hands and you do what He wants you to do and there will be great reward and great joy, there’s going to be valleys. And when there are valleys then you need to:
• talk to yourself and
• you need to praise God when you don’t feel like it.
• And you need to thank Him.
• And you can do that by remembering what He has done
• that will lead you to remembering what He’s like,
• and that will lead you to a new perspective.

And sometimes, God will take – are you ready for this? Your greatest moments of discouragement and your weakness and He will flip them in a way that brings about the most powerful experiences you may ever have in your life. And so, I want to close with a story that happened just a few years ago it was in the pandemic, right? So, a lot of us were struggling, a lot of us got discouraged. I happened to be, it was going to be on my way to China, we had been doing a lot of ministry, I was excited. It was like my seventh trip in about three years. And the Lord had opened so many doors.

COVID comes, it gets canceled, because of where I live in California, if you walked outside alone without a mask it was like you’re going to get called into the police or something. I mean, it was crazy. And some people are rule-keepers and some people are rule-breakers. My personality type is I’m a rule breaker. And, I mean, I got frustrated.

And so, I can’t go. And then pretty soon, you cannot see your kids, you cannot see your grandkids. And so, I’m getting ticked. And if you get really, really, really mad and you have done any work in psychology, you know that anger turned inward turns to depression. And I went from being discouraged by the first six months, I got depressed. And when you get really, really angry, the Bible is real clear too, that if it’s unresolved, you give a foothold to the enemy.

I found myself in one of the darkest times about six months in. So much so that I called my closest friend who has known me for forty years and I said, “AC, there’s stuff going in my mind that I just can’t believe. And I’m fighting and I’m praying and I’m fasting and I can’t get rid of it and they are terrible thoughts.” And I mean, for like thirty-five minutes I shared as honestly as I have with anyone ever.

And he said, “I’ve got you. I am going to pray.” He called me every day for the next seven or eight days and then texted me every day after that. So, by the way, when you’re discouraged, you need a friend, you need a mentor. And then I remembered this passage and the principles of this passage. And I did something that I didn’t want to do. And out of it I have developed a, sort of, overcoming discouragement steps one, two, three.

Step One: I feel terrible, I am angry, it’s really dark, I don’t even want to get out of the chair, I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to read, I don’t want to pray. I want to whine. When you get depressed it’s like darkness comes over you – it’s really scary. And some of you understand, I mean, it gets really, these are such dark thoughts and you think, Where might this go? And you try and fight. And somehow, I pulled myself up and I went out and I got on the elliptical until I was just sweating profusely because I’m thinking, Step one: get your endorphins working and see if you can get your body to give you some encouragement.

Step Two: okay Psalm 103, here we go. So, I walk outside, I’m walking around the block. You know, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me,” I mean, loud around no one. And I didn’t want to. And you can tell why I don’t do a lot of music. But I did to God. And then the third was after a good workout where I get really sweaty, and praising God, the third thing was find someone who needs help more than you.

And so, I came in after all of that and the TV was on and the news. And you know how terrible everything was. And they showed pictures of Egypt and all that was happening in Egypt at the time with the pandemic. And I have a very close friend who is in charge of all the Protestant churches. And I thought, Oh man, Dr. Zaki, I wonder how he’s doing. I didn’t want to call him, I didn’t want to encourage him, but, okay, okay. Work out, praise God when you don’t feel like it, go help someone who is in worse shape than you. Got a Zoom call with him the next day, “Dr. Zaki, how are you doing?”

He goes, “Well, my family and I are okay, I think the government is doing the best they can, the churches are barely surviving. Chip, it’s horrendous. Markets are closed, they can’t get food, the people can’t come,” And as he said that, because I had been thinking, You know, God, You’ve got something to say in this pandemic. And I said in passing, “Well, you know, I’m thinking about a series called The A.R.T. of Survival.

And he jumped in, “Send it to me!” Because I had done pastor training and some stuff there. I said, “No, no, Dr. Zaki, you don’t understand. I’m thinking about a series called The A.R.T. of Survival,” and it was from James where there’s an attitude, “Consider it all joy,” there’s a resource: supernatural wisdom to get through whatever. At this point, I’m thinking it and studying it better than I’m living it. And then there’s a theology, of all things, about discouragement. And something happened. Got off that Zoom call, had the head of our international on it, I just wanted to introduce them, and all of a sudden, all the self-pity, all the anger, all the me, all the down, I mean, it was like, God, I don’t have room for this. Those people are dying. Those pastors are in desperate, desperate need.

And I made a couple phone calls and had a friend come and put PVC pipe up and we stretched some fabric over it so it looked like a brick wall and got two cameras and Thursday I started studying. By Monday I filmed it, three, little three-part series. By Friday they had it in Egypt. By the next Friday they had it dubbed and translated and then I had a meeting with all the pastors. I’ll never forget, you know, one of those Zoom calls, you know, they have the pages? It was just page after page after page after page. And I gave sort of my three-part series in one message and then they asked questions for an hour and a half.

And we got done and my friend said, “This is not just for Egypt.” And all I can tell you is out of brokenness, out of weakness, out of discouragement, out of depression, when you take the counsel, “I will never give up,” and in your weakness just do what you can. All I can tell you is that message went all around the world. I don’t even know how many countries. Twenty-six, twenty-seven languages. And pastors all around the globe and their testimony was, going through this, “I won’t quit.” What is it that God wants to do to take your discouragement, your self-focus, your current valley, lift you up, and maybe even use it in such a way that His power would be revealed in your weakness?