Whole-Life Worship with Cheryl Marshall

How God Meets Us in Discouragement

• Cheryl Marshall • Season 1 • Episode 9

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0:00 | 22:35

Description

Cheryl Marshall explores the challenges of spiritual discouragement, especially when life’s circumstances make you feel like you’re falling behind in your faith. Drawing from personal experience and the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19, Cheryl offers encouragement and practical insights for glorifying God right where you are, regardless of your situation or limitations.

Key Topics Covered

  • The subtle dangers of discouragement in the Christian walk
  • Common misconceptions about what it means to serve and glorify God
  • Practical steps for overcoming discouragement and continuing in “whole life worship”
  • The importance of not measuring spiritual significance by visibility or reach

Take Aways

  • Your circumstances do not disqualify you from glorifying God; He can use you right where you are (08:44).
  • Discouragement can subtly divide devotion, but God meets us in gentleness and provides what we need (17:11).
  • What seems small or unseen in service to others can be significant in God’s sight (10:52).
  • Physical and spiritual care are both important during times of discouragement (19:10).
  • Do the next right thing; small acts of faithfulness matter (20:29).
  • When you honor God in small ways, He is honored in great ways (11:00).

Resources Mentioned

Next Steps

  • Identify and reflect on discouraging thoughts or lies you might believe about God or yourself.
  • Bring those thoughts to God in prayer and seek truth from His Word.
  • Embrace God’s practical care (rest, nourishment, spiritual encouragement).
  • Take small steps of faith, do the “next right thing” in your circumstances.
  • Review, subscribe, and share the podcast to encourage others.

Connect

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Whole Life Worship. This is Cheryl Marshall, and I'm so glad you're with us today as we pursue lives wholly devoted to God, without compromise, without comparison, in every circumstance. This is Whole Life Worship. Think of a time you felt spiritually behind. Maybe you looked around and you saw others who seemed strong in their faith. They were serving the Lord in ways you thought were meaningful. Maybe they were making strides in their walk with him and in ministry, and all the while you were just in survival mode, just trying to keep your head above water in the season of life you found yourself. Maybe you feel like that even now. You love the Lord, you want to honor him with your life, but it feels like the very life you have somehow is in the way. You have a job or a family or an illness that is understandably and necessarily taking a whole lot of your attention, or maybe past failures or wounds or current weaknesses and trials are taking up a lot of the space and time in your mind and life. And in comparison to others, you now feel like you're falling short in making a difference in the world for Jesus. This kind of discouragement isn't just a bad feeling, it's a divider. It can quietly divide our devotion to the Lord. This discouragement is a subtle and dangerous lie that says, My circumstances make me less able than others to glorify God. Today we're going to take an honest look at this kind of discouragement. And then we'll look at a man in Scripture who was completely undone by discouragement, and we'll see how God mercifully met him in it. And by the end, I hope you have a clear vision of what it looks like for God to strengthen you in your discouragement and to use you in his good plans so that you can still glorify him, still be a whole life worshiper, no matter what your circumstances may be. So let's start by thinking about what discouragement does to us spiritually. Rarely does discouragement alone make someone stop believing in God and his word altogether, but it certainly can put someone in a place of wrestling with her faith, of doubting God and his word, of doubting his goodness, his wisdom and his love, and of even doubting his promises found in his word. And if we find ourselves in that place of doubting, we may even begin to entertain or believe this half truth, that God can be glorified through other people's circumstances, whether people in the Bible or people I know, but he can't be glorified in my circumstances. I don't think God's goodness and faithfulness is evident in my life. I don't think it can be with what I'm going through or with the burdens I'm carrying. I don't see how he can be glorified in this. And I don't think I have anything worthwhile to offer him. This kind of thinking sets up a barrier to whole life worship. And again, whole life worship is devoting to God the totality of our lives, all that we are and do as the ultimate expression of our worship. You see, we can begin to falsely think that praise and service to the Lord can only happen in the spiritual or the religious activities of life, only in ministries that are big and seen, only by people who have lots of natural abilities and are very active, or only when life is smooth sailing. But we begin to believe that we can't praise and we can't serve the Lord in the quiet and the exhausting service and caregiving, not in the mundane routines of a very normal life, and especially not in our suffering. There was a point in my own life when I felt that kind of discouragement, and I believed those kinds of lies. In December 2004, I gave birth to premature twins, and once we had brought them home from the hospital, the doctor recommended that we not take them out for several weeks because they were premature and because it was so cold that winter. And so for weeks I was home with the children taking care of them day and night, and I was so exhausted. At the time, our son was also five years old, and I was homeschooling him, and I was trying to keep him occupied on those wintry cold days. And my mother had come into town to help with the babies, but she fell down our stairs and she broke her ankle, and now she was in the living room on a recliner, and I was helping to take care of her as she was helping to take care of the babies. So it was just a crazy exhausting time. And finally, the Sunday came where we decided to take everybody to church, and we bundled up the kids and we went. My husband and I went to the adult Sunday school that morning, and it was being taught by the pastor, and the name of the class that day was Every Member Mercy. And the pastor was encouraging those who were there to be merciful to those in need, just like our Savior was merciful to those in need. He was encouraging us to be compassionate, to have active pity. And just to give you some context, this was a church in the inner city, and so the physical and the spiritual needs were evident on the street, evident all around this church. And it was a wonderful church congregation. They loved the Lord, they loved that community, and they were actively seeking to share the gospel and to meet the needs that were so evident. And just to give an example, one of my close friends at the church, her family had actually taken a prostitute and her baby into their home to help get them off the streets. And so these are the types of personal ministry things that were taking place. And as I heard the pastor talking and teaching, I became so discouraged because I was thinking, you know, I'm not doing anything like that. I'm not helping this community. I can't do that because of the babies and the child I have at home. And I raised my hand and I said to the pastor, I said, Ryan, I hear what you're saying and I agree with you. And those are things I'd love to be able to do caring for people in this community, but I can't. What do you have to say to someone like me? And I will never forget the look on his face when he looked me right in the eye and he said, Cheryl, you are building God's kingdom right where you are. It still makes me teary to this day. The Lord knew exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. And I have often reminded myself of that in other seasons of life, in other circumstances. Cheryl, you are building God's kingdom right where you are. Maybe you don't think you have what it takes to glorify God in your season of caring for others. Maybe you're working hard to pay the family bills, maybe you're caring for kids from morning to night, maybe you are serving your aging parents, driving across town several times a week to be with them and to help them physically and emotionally. Maybe you're too tired and too occupied to do anything, quote unquote, significant for God. Friend, you are doing something significant for God. God will be glorified in you as you seek to live faithfully right where you are. Maybe you think you don't have the ability to glorify God because of your physical limitations. Maybe you're suffering with sickness or an impairment, and you're quietly grieving the abilities and opportunities for life and ministry you thought you would have. God is glorified in you as you seek to live faithfully right where you are. Maybe you're looking at your past, all the brokenness and the failure and the sin, even that which has been confessed and forgiven, and it's hard for you to believe that you could be fruitful for the Lord now. I wonder if God can or even wants to use me, is what you may be thinking. Know this, God will be glorified in you as you seek to live faithfully, right where you are. So here's the common misunderstanding. We often measure the significance or value of service to the Lord by its visibility and by its reach. We see someone in a place of leadership or vast responsibility, and we say, you know, there's someone doing big things for God. There's someone who's doing what really matters, but that's a worldly metric. It's not a biblical one. Because as we saw in episode three of this season, we can do all and underline all, all that is big or small, seen or unseen. We can do all things to the glory of God. He calls us to that. He delights in that. So don't believe the lie that your limitations are in the way of God's good work, that they exclude you from bringing him much glory with your life. Your circumstances are part of his perfect plan. He's also provided ways for you to glorify him in them and through them. And you may hear me right now and wonder, how? How can I glorify God with where I'm at right now? Honestly, I can't tell you all the specific ways you can honor the Lord in your circumstances. But I know, I am absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that God can show you in his word. The Holy Spirit uses the scriptures to teach us and to guide us to know how to trust and obey him in every situation. So be in the word, be prayerful, commune with Christ, just like Shelby Cullen was encouraging us back in episodes four and five, commune with him, be expectant, be dependent on the Lord as he reveals himself and his ways in his word, and be willing and ready to trust and obey him in the smallest of things. And he will give you moment by moment the grace, the spiritual strength, and the spiritual insight you need to do that. And never forget, when you honor the Lord in the small ways, he is honored in a great way. If you want to grow as a whole life worshiper, my new book, All of Me, Pursuing a Life Fully Devoted to God, was written especially for you. It's available through major booksellers and the link in the show notes. Now let's see how the Lord met someone with loving kindness in their discouragement. One of Israel's greatest prophets, Elijah, became tremendously discouraged. In our modern-day lingo, we would say he completely fell apart. And as we look at his story in 1 Kings 19, I think we'll be able to identify with his discouragement. But more importantly, we will see how God responded to Elijah, and we'll be able to draw from that what we need to get to the other side of our discouragement. So Elijah was a prophet of God in Israel in the 9th century BC, and this was during the reign of the wicked King Ahab, who was married to the infamous Queen Jezebel. And we're going to consider what happened in 1 Kings 19, but I first want to point out to you two significant events in 1 Kings 18. First of all, there was a standoff on Mount Carmel between Elijah and 450 prophets of Baal who had been leading Israel astray. So Elijah was on this mountain, he had an altar, there was a sacrifice upon it, and he had doused it with water, but there was no fire to light it. Then there were the prophets, they also had an altar, and they had a sacrifice on it to Baal, but they had no fire. And Elijah gave this challenge to them in 1 Kings 18, verse 24. He said, And you call upon the name of your God, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God. And all the people answered, It is well spoken. They're like, Great, let's do this. So to make a long story short, Baal, of course, didn't send fire, but God did. And this is what it says in first Kings eighteen, thirty six through forty. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and said, The Lord He is God, the Lord He is God. And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they seized him, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. God was the victor, and Elijah was used by God in that victory. Now there's a second event in first Kings eighteen, and this is what happened. You see, there had been a drought in Israel for three and a half years because of the people's rebellion against the Lord. But at the end of that chapter, after the prophets lost at Mount Carmel and were destroyed, God sent rain. And Elijah again had a front row seat to the power and faithfulness of God to bring that long and disastrous drought to an end. But then at the beginning of 1 Kings 19, Elijah gets a message from Queen Jezebel and he just unravels. You see, Jezebel was furious. Not only were her prophets defeated, they were also destroyed by Elijah. And basically she sends a message to Elijah saying, I'm going to kill you. I'm coming after you, and by this time tomorrow, you're going to be a dead man. In response, Elijah flees alone into the wilderness. He sits under a tree and he wishes his life was over. He's done with it all. In 1 Kings 19, verse 4, it says this, and he asked God that he might die, saying, It is enough now. O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's. Elijah is physically depleted. The experiences of 1 Kings 18 and his escape to the wilderness has been too great for him. He's absolutely exhausted. And the scripture text here seems to tie his spiritual state to his physical condition. Elijah also carries a sense of guilt. He compares himself to those who have gone before him and he finds himself lacking. And he feels all alone. Later in chapter 19, he says, I alone am left. His discouragement has distorted his perspective. He's not alone, but he feels utterly alone. Elijah is so discouraged that he even asks the Lord to take his life. And this is the man who had just participated in God's victory on Mount Carmel and whose prayers had opened the skies after three and a half years of drought. Now it's true that Elijah is physically exhausted, but I think his discouragement rises from the gap between what he expected and what he experienced. He had faithfully served the Lord, but now he's running for his life. And maybe your discouragement is similar to Elijah's. Your circumstances are not what you had hoped for or expected, even as a follower of Christ. But here's what I want us to see next. God cares for Elijah and strengthens him in his discouragement. God is so patient with him. And even though Elijah thought his usefulness was over, God had an assignment waiting for him on the other side of his restoration. And we'll see that in a moment. So let's see how God strengthens Elijah in 1 Kings 19. First of all, God's response to Elijah's discouragement is gracious and gentle, and I will even say practical. So the angel of the Lord comes to Elijah, gives him food, gives him something to drink. He actually does this twice, and he lets Elijah sleep. This reminds me of Psalm 103, verses 13 and 14, which says, Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. And so we see here, the Lord tenderly cares for Elijah in his weakness, even in his physical weakness. Elijah then spends 40 days without hearing from the Lord on Mount Horeb. And then there's a great wind, and then an earthquake, and then a fire, and then a gentle blowing. And only after that did Elijah hear the voice of the Lord. There was a lesson in that for Elijah and also for us today. God doesn't just move in the mighty, he moves in the mundane. He doesn't only do his work in what we would say is the spectacular, he does his work in the small things of life as well. And when God then speaks to Elijah, he gives Elijah three tasks to go accomplish on his behalf, and he sends him on his way. But first he encourages Elijah that he's not the only one serving him. There are others in Israel who are still living faithfully and quietly for the Lord, day in and day out. There are 7,000 who have still not bowed the knee to Baal. And God is showing Elijah that He does his work among his people even when it's not easily seen. So what do we learn about God from this story of Elijah to strengthen us when discouragement is seeming to undermine our devotion to the Lord? Number one, God cares for us physically. He made our whole person and he cares for our whole person. So whatever provisions he has made for us physically in our discouragement, whether it be food or exercise or sleep or so forth, we need to take advantage of that and take it as a gracious gift from our creator who knows exactly what we need. He may not always give us what we want, but he will always give us what we need to honor him in our situation. Number two, wait upon the Lord in his word. In Elijah's discouragement, the Lord both instructed and encouraged Elijah. He does the same for us today in his word. Elijah waited to hear from the Lord for 40 days. We have the opportunity this very day to open the scriptures, to read and receive his word, and to commune with our Savior. We may go through dry spells, but God is never silent. Sometimes we just have a hard time hearing him. Scripture always speaks, and his spirit is with us to instruct and encourage us with it. And then number three, and sometimes this is the most difficult step in walking with the Lord through discouragement, and it's this do the next right thing. Whatever that might be, big or small, regardless of how we feel, we must do the next right thing, moving forward, trusting and obeying the Lord. God gave Elijah his next steps. And we have our next steps. That may mean getting up and doing the dishes. That may mean asking forgiveness from someone. That may mean standing for the Lord in a specific way in your family or work or ministry, even if no one else does. But just like Elijah, move forward in what God has revealed by his word. If you've been discouraged and in some way it's been dividing your whole life worship to the Lord, I want to leave you with this. Elijah's story shows us that God doesn't abandon us in our weakness. He seeks us out, he tenderly restores us. And then he leads us back to continue serving him, to continue living for him. And so ask yourself this week, what is the discouraging thought I keep returning to? And what lie about God or myself am I believing? Bring that to the Lord in prayer. Receive the rest he provides. Listen to him in his word, and then follow him. And remember what I said earlier. When you honor the Lord in the small ways, he is honored in a great way. A life of wholehearted devotion to the Lord isn't built by perfect circumstances. It's built by a faithful God who puts his glory on display in a weak yet willing heart. Thank you for listening to this episode. I invite you to please review, subscribe, and share, and keep pursuing a life wholly devoted to God without compromise, without comparison in every circumstance. This is Whole Life Worship.