19. Romans 5:3-5 But that’s not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence.We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Disillusionment means you had some illusions about the sector to begin with. Often the fading dream of what life in the nonprofit sector will be like is not as devastating in itself as the message you take from it.

One of Satan’s most effective weapons is discouragement, and we are not immune to its effects. He well knows that prolonged despondency can rob us of strength, even making us vulnerable. (Proverbs 24:10) Because Satan is trying to capitalize on negative feelings, we need help. Those issues and the way that Jehovah has chosen to resolve them are bigger than any of us as individuals.

Remember that you have the luxury of having doors. You talk of hope. Every single door, open or closed is still an opportunity. Imagine the plight of those who live surrounded only by walls .

Everything in life is about perspectives If situations don’t suit you suit yourself to the situations.

if you are really familiar with what motivates you, you can adapt as needs arise and shift. As Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert points out in his Ted Talk “The Psychology of your future self,” illusions we harbor in the present can hinder future happiness. “Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished,” says Gilbert, who describes time as a powerful but unacknowledged force in our lives.

To maintain a positive perspective, we must remember the vital issues involved in God’s permission of evil. If at times our own problems seem overwhelming and we are tempted to quit, but we do well to remind ourselves that Satan has challenged the rightfulness of Jehovah’s sovereignty which holds the key to genuine permanent peace and security for the human family. The Deceiver has also questioned the devotion and integrity of anyone who wishes to worship the true God. (Job 1:8-11; 2:3, 4).

Closed doors are often God’s way of refining us and preparing us for the door He will eventually open. Thus it may be that God’s will is focused more on how we respond to the door than in our walking through it. If we run from the “trial of waiting,” we may miss God’s will that is to be accomplished at the doorpost. This is illustrated in a book entitled: Talking About God is Dangerous: The Diary of a Russian Dissident, by Tatiana Goricheva (Crossroad, reviewed by Brian F.O’Connell in “Christianity Today,” February 19, 1988, p. 34).

Open Doors. In the book, the author describes how God opened the door for her to know Him. She was 26 and had been raised as an atheist in Russia. She had become an outstanding philosophy student, the pride of a Marxist society, but she was still dissatisfied.

Discouragement happens, even to the strongest and best of people. Below are few steps you can take when you start to feel the black cloud of discouragement swallow you up.

1. Be honest. It does you no good to pretend you don’t feel what you feel. You can’t take action against a negative feeling until you first admit you have it. A strong Christian is not someone who never experiences negative feelings. It’s someone who has learned what to do with them when he or she has them and how to process them biblically.

2. Take care of your body. If your body isn’t working, your mind, emotions and will are also weakened.

3. Pay attention to your thought life. Maturing as believers means we learn to think truthfully (Philppians 4;8) and to take every thought captive to the obedience of God .

All of us attempt to make sense of the things that happen in our lives. We try to figure out why they happen and what it all means. It’s crucial that we pay attention to what stories we are telling ourselves about ourselves, about others, about God or a particular situation, and whether or not those stories are actually true.

5.    Press close into God

The truth is life is hard, people do disappoint and hurt us, and we don’t always understand God or his ways. The prophet Nahum talks about a day of trouble and reminds us “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, he knows those who trust in him” (Nahum 1;7). If we’re not in close trusting relationship with God, life’s troubles can become unbearable.

One final tip. The best way to chase out a negative feeling is with another feeling. “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God” Gratitude is a powerful anecdote for discouragement. We may not be able to give God thanks for the difficult situation that we find ourselves in, but we can learn to look for things we can be thankful for in the midst of it.

God bless you all.

Steve Ramsey- Calgary.