The despair and the discouragement

When you begin to proclaim the gospel, everything will rise to discourage you from continuing. It is possible that you are so discouraged that you will think that God can do nothing with you, and that you are incapable of saving a soul. This is the lot of all who want to experience the power of God. Those who do not expect anything are never disappointed, but those who expect big things are always disappointed.

Today, I announced the Gospel with a friend of about twenty people. I prayed as I do regularly to see the glory of God manifest, but there was nothing visible. When I returned, I could feel a great sense of discouragement. However, in a gentle way, I knew that the Holy Spirit was calling me to keep courage, as this passage invites us :

"We are therefore always full of confidence and we know that as long as we live in this body, we are far from our homeland, far from the Lord, because we walk by faith and not by sight. Yes, we are full of confidence and we would rather leave this body to live with the Lord. It is also why we strive to be agreeable to him, whether we live in this body or we leave him. Indeed, we will all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one receives the wages of what he did, good or bad, while he was in his body. Therefore, since we know what the fear of the Lord is, we seek to convince men. As for God, he knows us, and I hope that in your conscience you know us too" (2 Corinthians 5: 6-11).

It is important to walk by faith when we return from evangelistic times. The enemy would like to stop our race and we must not, like the spies, come back from the promised country by declaring that the giants are too big for God. We must walk by faith at all times.

Jeremy Sourdril