Discouragement can be a Hindrance

I was reading the first chapter of Deuteronomy and came across verse 28. “…Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, the people is greater and taller than we, the cities are great and walled up to heaven and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there (Deuteronomy 1:28)” The children of Israel was discourage from going forward and possessing the land that the Lord had given them because of the reports they heard. Caleb was the only one that came back with a good report but his view was overlooked because the children of Israel were focusing on the evil report from the other men.


Number 13:30 – 33:
“And Caleb still the people before Moses, and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, we be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sights.”

I use to hear a lot of people in my life time say that “if the majority is doing it then it must be right” that is not true. The majority can be wrong. As in the case with the children of Israel, there was only one person that believed they were able to go and the others thought it was impossible. But what did God say? God said, “Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land ….. (Deuteronomy 1:8).” Whose report will you believe? There was only one man that believed the commandment of the Lord and was able to look beyond his own ability and see the Lord’s ability.

As Christians today we must not allow others to discourage us or we should not be a discouragement to our brethren. As the previous blog I posted asked the question, “Is there anything too hard for God?” We should learn to look beyond our own limitation because we of ourselves cannot do anything. We need God to fight our battles for us. When he gives us a commandment we should follow and not doubt. He is not like man that he should lie.

Many times we miss out on the things that God has in store for us because we fail to believe and trust him. We rely on our own fleshly abilities that can barely do much for us. We all need to get to the place in our lives where we can completely trust God.

The sad part about the children of Israel is that the ones who did not believe that they were able to go and conquer the land died and did not see the promise. Deuteronomy 1:35-36 states, “Surely, there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord.” What ashamed! Their unbelief caused them not to take part in the promise that God had for their life. Do you want to be in that situation?

I don’t know about you but I want to be able to receive the promise that God has for my life. It will be ashamed to spend so many years in church and to allow my unbelief to pull me away from God’s eternal promise. It is not worth it!

My encouragement to you today is to watch the words you speak and your action towards others. There are some things that can discourage a person. You don’t ever want to speak discouragement into someone else life. Neither do you want someone to speak discouragement into your life. Be careful who you listen to and care advice from---make sure they are speaking things that match up with the words of God.