Though all hope may seem lost…Take heart again, take courage again, take hope once again.
Discouragement is a normal place to find yourself, but not a place to stay. We lose some of the meaning of this word in the English. In the Latin ‘cor’ means heart. The word discourage has roots in discouragier from the French language. Des means away and corage means courage. When our courage gets taken away so does our heart. Discouragement sucks the life out of us. Without heart and without courage we find ourselves without life. Without life we can’t do the things we were made to do, called to do and love to do. So don’t let anyone or anything take your heart from you. Even if it’s been lost for a very long time you can still grab hold of it. Speak courage to your heart until you believe it. Take heart again, take courage again, take hope once again...and again.
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 NASB
The Biblical definition of losing heart means to be utterly spiritless, wearied out, or exhausted. Now that’s a dark place to find yourself. Yet, you don’t have to stay there. In 2 Corinthians Paul is encouraging us with his own life. Even though he was threatened, beaten, imprisoned, and stoned, even still he learned the secret of not losing heart. He saw the purpose behind every affliction; the value of the inward man more than the outward man; of the spirit more than the body. He saw the opportunities all of his pain and suffering brought him to know Jesus and to share Jesus. His secret was in the day by day renewing. It’s a day by day process and battle. So take today. Take this moment. Speak words of renewing life to your spirit. Let it find newness once again in the truth that we need not lose heart. This place is meaningful, the pain is worth it, and you can take heart once again even in this place.
For some extra encouragement check out this short message from John Piper mixed into Shane and Shane’s song, “Though You Slay Me."
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