Daily Devotional

I hurt my shoulder. I don’t know how but it happened. I went to bed fine and woke up the next morning unable to move it without shooting pain. Here’s the kicker, it literally happened on my birthday. That wasn’t quite the way to celebrate that I had in mind. It’s been almost 2 weeks now and it’s still stuck. Even now I’m writing this devotional on my phone because it’s easier than trying to use a computer one handed. To say the least, I’ve been feeling discouraged.

Google tells us that discouraged means “having lost confidence or enthusiasm; disheartened.” Let’s be honest, we’ve all felt that way. Maybe it’s not because of a shoulder injury, maybe it’s a fight with a loved one, a diagnosis we didn’t want to hear, a promotion we got passed over for, or a child who is choosing a wrong path. We’ve all had times where discouragement seems the only possible response.

I don’t think the writer of this Psalm is telling us we shouldn’t ever feel discouraged because sometimes life is just discouraging. It’d be like telling someone not to be afraid when a lion is running at you or not to be happy with a plate of bacon in front of you. We can’t always control our feelings, but we can choose to change our focus. Instead of saying, “Don’t be discouraged” the writer asks, “Why am I discouraged?” Yes, there are certainly discouraging things that happen and will continue to happen in this life, but our hope is not in this life. Because our hope is in God, we can praise Him even WHEN we feel discouraged.

Whether life feels like it’s all going your way or you’re feeling pretty discouraged right now, remember where your true hope is found. We can praise Him in the valley and on the mountaintop, through joy and through grief, through comfort and through pain. We can praise Him at all times not because of our circumstances but because He is always good regardless of our circumstances. Our hope is in God and that’s a hope that does not and will not disappoint.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.