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17. Struggling With Disappointment? 3 Steps to Find Peace and Purpose Again · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey friends, welcome back to the Believe and Become podcast. Today's episode is a powerful one. Josh shared this message recently on the Igniting Hope YouTube channel and we just knew we had to bring it here for you too. It's all about overcoming disappointment and discouragement, something every one of us faces at some point. If you've ever wondered where God is when things don't go as planned, this message will encourage your heart and remind you that God is still working even when you can't see it. So let's dive in and let the Holy Spirit fill you with fresh hope and faith today.
• 0:35
  Speaker B: Welcome to Believe and Become Spirit Led Breakthrough for Transformation that lasts.
• 0:41
  Speaker A: We're Josh and Karina Greger, authors, speakers and freedom coaches who help Christians like you break free from anxiety, burnout and spiritual frustration by renewing your mind and walking in trouble.
• 0:53
  Speaker B: If you're hungry for real, lasting change and ready to grow in identity, peace and purpose, you're in the right place.
• 1:01
  Speaker A: Let's believe what God says and become who he created us to be. If you've been feeling stuck in discouragement or just need help breaking free from negative thought patterns, we would love to walk with you. Our Transformational Beliefs coaching program is designed to help you renew your mind, overcome limiting beliefs, and step into the joy and peace God promises. You can learn more or schedule a free transformation session where we'll spend 25 minutes with you making a plan for your biggest area of breakthrough@joshandkarina.com coaching. That's Karina C O R I N A and we would love to hear your story and help you experience lasting transformation from the inside out.
• 1:47
  Speaker B: I'm going to be talking today about overcoming disappointment and discouragement, which I think is such a powerful message, something that we all need to hear and reminders of. And I'm going to share a little bit about what the Lord has spoken to me about it and my experience with overcoming disappointment and discouragement and hopefully this is helpful to you. Really excited for what the Lord is going to do through this message. Thank you so much for joining me. I pray that the Lord would just impact you so much through this message. So let's just jump in. Why is dealing with disappointment and discouragement so important? I think it's really important because it is a subtle way that the enemy comes in and steals our joy and steals our hope and our faith in what God is doing in our lives. He can just so subtly say, oh, that didn't work out. Is God really moving in your life? Does he really have a plan for you. Does he really have your back? I know that in my life that so many times there's just a. That subtle voice that comes in of like, does God? Is he really good? Is he really taking care of you? And so we just have to deal with that. We have to get rid of those lies, stop listening to the liar and start listening to the truth of what God is saying to us. And the truth of what His Word speaks to us is so powerful. And let me talk a little bit about the difference between disappointment and discouragement, at least how I've experienced in my life. Disappointment to me is like little things that happen that, you know, just didn't turn out the way you had hoped. You go, oh, that's a bummer. I was disappointed in that. Discouragement is, to me is almost like a spirit, or it's like I've been listening to disappointment for so long now, I just have a general negative feeling about my life and how things are going. And so definitely you don't want to fall into discouragement. So dealing with disappointment when it happens, because we're all going to have things in life that just kind of don't turn out the way that we hoped. And that's okay. The Lord still has a plan and he is still faithful. So we have to deal with those disappointments as they pop up. Maybe you didn't get the job that you wanted or you didn't get the raise. Maybe you wanted a ministry opportunity or you wanted to be able to speak that didn't turn out. There's lots of little things that happen throughout life and some big disappointments, too, disappointments in relationships. And we need to just deal with those and hand them over to the Lord when they happen and not continue to reinforce our thinking with that. Negative things just aren't working out for me. It's so important. So let me share a little of my story with you. I have a great life now, and I have had a great life for a long time. But there's definitely a season where probably about 10 years ago, where on the outside everything looked great. I had a great job, I have a great wife, had great kids. We had everything that we needed. God was so faithful. He blessed us so, so much. And my wife Karina and I led worship at our church. And that had been a call on my life, a thing that I had always wanted to do. God had fulfilled that and put us in a church where we got to do that. And it was amazing. But I still had this nagging feeling of what is it really working out for me. It just doesn't seem like this isn't what I imagined it to be. And which anybody would have been, I think surprised to hear that because it looked like everything was really going well for me, but I would constantly go, well, this wasn't really what I had in mind. I felt a call from when I was in high school to be in ministry and to me that looked like being in full time ministry. And while the Lord gave us this great position where we were volunteering and led every week and we could do as much ministry as we wanted to, it just didn't feel like what I thought it was going to be. It just didn't, you know, and so you kind of go, oh, that didn't really work out. And I would have had to apply to different jobs and ministry jobs and none of them ever panned out. I don't think I ever even got a call back, which was, that was disappointing. You're like, what's going on? I've experience, I'm qualified. And it just made me go, maybe it's just not going to work out. And so I just fell into a negative mindset of it's not working out. I kept renewing my mind with, well, my life isn't that good. You know, does God's not really taking care of me or it's not, his plan's not working out. I don't think I'm ever going to fulfill my calling. I don't. I'm not fulfilling my purpose in life. And that boy, that took me in a negative spiral, that was really bad. And I got severely discouraged for many, many years. And you know what it, the Lord brought me out of that. And really what it took for me was going to counseling and getting some help to change those thoughts and to recognize, oh, that's not, that's actually not the truth. What is the truth? And then activating gratitude in my life and just focusing on the truth that God has a great plan for me and he's working it out. And so if you fast forward after I, you know, I went to counseling for a while and started renewing my mind with the truth. Romans 12:2 was a theme verse for me. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That was something the Lord spoke over over me again and again. And that was so powerful just to change my thinking. And then I got the courage to quit my job. Like the Lord led me into that, to quit my full time job that I had. And we packed up the family and left and Came to Reading, California to go to ministry school and it has been amazing. The Lord has done so many great things and he's shown his faithfulness and his provision time and time again for us. And I wouldn't change it for the world. It's been such an amazing experience. And God just, He is faithful. He is working it out and he's continued to teach me more about Himself and more about his nature. And he's just so, so good. So I want to share with you just a few practical things that you can do to help overcome discouragement, help overcome disappointment in your life when it happens, because it will happen. So we need to have a plan in place. What are we going to do? The first thing is, is to realize that God is pleased with you. I spent so many years in ministry trying to earn God's favor. I was trying to make up for past mistakes in my life. And so I was always working and striving, trying to make him happy with me. And that's such a lie because he is happy with you. You don't have to work to earn God's favor. If you've accepted Jesus in your life, you've given him your life and you're he is pleased with you. Stop dragging that those old sins around with you and beating yourself up. You need to get rid of those things. They were crucified with Christ and you're a new creation. In fact, right now the Lord is breaking off the lie that you have to strive, you have to work to earn his favor. And God's saying, stop working. Stop trying to earn my favor. You've got it. I love you so, so much. And there's nothing you can do to make me love you any more or any less. You can't mess up so bad that I'm going to stop loving you. You can't work so hard that I'm going to love you anymore. He is pleased with you because you're his son or daughter. So I just want to encourage you with that. Just focus on his goodness and his love. We're in right relationship with him because of the work of Jesus on the cross. I love Hebrews 4:16 says we can come boldly into the throne room of grace, that we can obtain mercy and grace to help us in time of need. We've got the invitation, the doors are wide open for us to come straight into his throne room and into his presence. Stop working for his love and start working from his love. I'll say that again. You can stop working for his love and Start working from his love for me. That has made all the difference, especially in ministry situations. I don't know how long I tried to do it out of my own strength and it was exhausting. So I just break that off of you right now. Whatever ministry you're doing, which our whole lives really are ministry unto the Lord. Because we're always encountering people that need the love of Jesus. And you can rely upon the overflow of his presence to help you. There's a saying that we have it's pressure off presence on so you can turn the pressure off. You don't have to perform, you can just rely upon his presence. So that's the first thing is to know that God is pleased with you. Actually I'd release encounters of the Father's love that God would encounter you with his over overwhelming love and know that you are safe and secure in his presence. The next thing I want to encourage you with is know that God is always working things out for you. We can have confidence. We have promise after promise in the Bible that God is working things out for us. Romans 8:28 says that we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So many people use that as an excuse of when bad things happen. Well, God's going to turn it around for good. Well, I mean it's not an excuse, but it is the truth that even when we mess up, God's gonna turn that around. He always has our best interest at heart for us. And I love what Connie Jones says, is that to have more faith that God's gonna work it out than faith that you're gonna mess it up. I know for me, I always thought I am going to mess this up. I'm gonna, I'm gonna miss God's will. And then. Then what? Then I'm in big trouble. You know, I'm just. My life's not gonna mean anything. I mean just a spiral of lies. So let's just get rid of that one. That's, that that's dumb God. God is so much bigger than any mistake that we can make. And he's so faithful that even if we do make a mistake or we start going down the wrong path, he's going to correct us. Have more faith that he is a good father and he knows what's best for us. And if we start to make a mistake or we make the wrong decision, he can redeem that he's bigger than all of that. That has helped me so, so much And I also want to. I encourage you with Philippians 1:6, another verse that's helped me so much. It says, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. He doesn't just leave half done works in us and we can have confidence that he's going to complete it. If you look up that verb in the original Greek, it's in a tense that means that he is constantly completing it. He's always completing the work in us. And you can just take that to the bank to know that. Boy, maybe this doesn't feel great in the moment, but I have confidence that God's going to turn it around, that he is using this for my good, and that he is completing the good work that he's already started in me. And then the last thing that I want to share with you that has helped me so much is to be aware of how you talk to yourself and start to change that. I know that when I was disappointed or discouraged, I would say horrible things to myself. I would say, I have a bad life, my job stinks, I'm not a good father, I'm a bad dad. Negative self talk. And that wasn't from God. Those are all from the enemy. He was lying to me and I was agreeing with those lies. And we just never agree with anything that the enemy is saying. God, whenever he speaks over you, it's going to be overwhelmingly positive and good. And even if he decides that you need a little correction, it's going to be gentle and it's going to be for your good. He's just so good. He's a good father. And so being aware of our self talk and changing, that is so important. Proverbs 18:21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue. We have that power in our mouths to declare death or life over ourselves. There's something so powerful when you decide to go, wow, actually I have a great life. I have a lot of blessings. God is doing a great work in me. He's taking care of me. I have a great family, I have a great wife, I have a great job. I have great ministry opportunities. The Lord is so faithful. And as we declare those things, that is when the transformation starts to happen. That Romans 12:2 being transformed by the renewing of our mind. I love in James 3. The tongue is the rudder of our lives. We can direct our lives with our words. If you change your words, you can change your life. And I always used to think that was some kind of weird new agey mumbo jumbo or read a self help book, do a bunch of affirmations and you'll change your life. Well, it's actually based on the truth of scripture. Go ahead and read James 3. It's pretty clear in there that we can control the direction of our lives by the words that are coming out of our mouth. And we can't do something that we don't believe that we are. And so you just need to declare over yourself the truth, get truths out of the Bible and say those over yourself. And you can say, I'm a good parent, I'm a good friend, I'm a good son or daughter, and God is good and he has a great plan for me. And as you continue to speak those truths over yourself, then it goes into your heart and then it becomes who you are. And it does take a while. So don't give up. Do it for a couple of months and then you'll start to see you're looking at life a different way. And you'll be in a situation where you used to say, oh, wow, that was horrible, that went terrible. And then instead of saying those negative things, you're going to say, okay, well that, that probably could have gone better. But God is so faithful, he is redeeming it. He is redeeming the time in my life. He is redeeming any mistakes that I make. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify those negative thoughts that keep happening in your mind and then combat them with the truth. And say when you get that thought, I still have it every once in a while where it's like, oh man, my life stinks. I'm like, where did that come from? That's not me, that's the enemy trying to discourage me, keep me stuck in a negative pattern. Discouragement robs us of the hope that God has for us. It robs us of joy. And we don't partner with the thief, we partner with the truth. So you can fight those with the truth that God is faithful, that he's doing a good work in me and he's going to complete it. He's in the process of completing it right now. And so those are my three things I wanted to encourage you with. I actually want to just lead you on a quick encounter if you'll go along with me. I want you to just take a moment and we're going to just close your eyes and I want you to imagine a box. This is something that has been so helpful for me through the years to Deal with disappointment or to deal with even things that I'm stressed or worried about. Just imagine a box and try to think detailed. What does that box look like? Ask the Holy Spirit, okay, what does my box look like? And then I want you to think about any disappointment that's happened in your life that you've encountered. It could be a big one, it could be a small one. Try to think about whatever it is, that disappointment that you're dealing with. Imagine what that looks like. The Lord will give you a picture. It's probably something green and nasty looking. That's usually what mine looks like. We're going to put that in the box, we're going to close it up and we're going to hand that to the Father. Imagine you can see his face smiling down on you and he says, thank you for giving that to me. Thank you for giving me your disappointment. You don't have to carry that around anymore. I have dealt with that disappointment. And I have something so, so much better for you than to carry around disappointment and discouragement and just allow the Lord to hand you whatever, whatever gift he wants to give you in place of that disappointment, that discouragement. He's going to hand you something so, so much better. The peace, the hope and the joy, the confidence to move through life knowing that God has got your back, that he is doing something great in you, and that He's a good, good Father. He is faithful and he never, ever is going to let you down. I hope that was helpful for you. You can go back to that anytime. Anytime you have a worry, an anxiety, a disappointment, just put it in that box and hand it over to the Father. And he is so faithful to take those things and turn them around. He will turn them around for your good. So right now I see the Lord breaking off discouragement, off of your life. Right now. He is giving you the grace that's his unmerited favor, but also the supernatural power to change. He's giving you grace to change your thoughts, to get rid of those lies and to believe the truth that He's a good Father and He's taking care of you. So let me pray for you, Father. I thank you for every person that is watching this. God, thank you for the great work that you're doing in them. Thank you that they don't have to be stuck in disappointment and discouragement. That you have freedom, peace and joy. I release that over them right now. And I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you're moving powerfully to train our minds so that we don't have to think lies anymore. You're breaking any partnerships that we've made with the enemy, Lord, and you're setting us free. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. I thank you so much God for your goodness and I bless each and every person that's watching this. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank you all for joining me. I hope this has helped you. I hope it's blessed. You have a great rest of your day.
• 19:06
  Speaker A: Wow, wasn't that powerful. I know so many of us can relate to the feeling of disappointment or discouragement, and I just love how Josh reminded us that God is always working, even when we can't see it. If this message encouraged you today, would you take a quick moment to rate and review the podcast? It helps more people find messages like this one. And if you're ready to go deeper to overcome discouragement, renew your mind and step into the joy and confidence God has for you. We would love to walk with you through our Transformational Beliefs coaching program. You can learn more or schedule a free transformation session@joshandkarina.com coaching that's Josh and Karina c o R-I-N a.com coaching and as always, you can find more episodes, devotionals and resources@joshandkarina.com. thanks for listening. And remember, no matter what you're facing today, God's not finished. He is faithful to complete the good work he started in you. Bye.