4 Practices for Staying Encouraged
No Matter What
In the sport of boxing, one of a boxer’s most important jobs is keeping their guard up. They keep their hands up to protect their head, because it’s the most vulnerable place to be hit. When it comes to our spiritual battles, however, it is not our head we must guard, but our heart:
Above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23 NASB)
Our hearts are the seat of our courage, the inner virtue by which we put our faith into action. This is why the enemy works overtime to dis-courage us. Like a boxer, he employs a variety of strategies to attack us so that we lower the guard around our hearts, allowing his lies to penetrate and rob us of our courage.
So many people—pastors and leaders!—have been shipwrecked in their faith simply because they did not prioritize guarding their heart. Because of lies and discouragement that get in, they end up leaving churches, breaking up their marriages, falling into addictions, and rejecting God Himself—all to their own destruction. If we want to avoid shipwreck and fulfill the call of God on our lives, we must make it our priority to guard our hearts. Here are four essential practices that will help us beat discouragement and stay encouraged.
Practice #1: Take a Timeout
One time I was meeting with Danny Silk, who has been a mentor in my life in the area of building heart awareness, when he asked me, “When someone sprains their ankle in a game, what do they do?”
“You tape it up,” I replied.
Danny shook his head. I threw out a few other answers, but none of them hit the target. He finally told me what he was looking for. “You take yourself out of the game and assess the situation.”
This idea seemed so simple and yet foreign to me. I grew up with the belief that if you got hurt in a game, you played through it. You sucked it up, taped it up, got a shot to numb the pain, and pressed on. And while I still think it’s important to display endurance in the face of pain, I now recognize that when I am feeling hurt, scared, overwhelmed, or powerless, it’s reckless and unhealthy to try to compartmentalize, ignore, or medicate it and try to move on. I need to stop what I’m doing and take a timeout to assess what’s really going on in my heart.
Taking a timeout isn’t that complicated. Just get alone in a quiet place where you can pray, think, and maybe journal. Start by quieting your mind and body and just being present to God and your own spirit. Then ask yourself a few simple questions, silently, out loud, or on paper:
What am I feeling right now?
What am I thinking right now?
What am I wanting right now?
What am I believing right now?
Speak or write down your answers. Invite the Holy Spirit to show you where you are believing any lies, to reveal His truth, and to restore your courage to walk in that truth.
Practice #2: The Power of a Meal and a Nap
Sometimes when we are struggling with discouragement, we think we need to go on a forty-day water fast and start getting up at five every morning to pray and press in harder. I believe in fasting and I am deeply committed to prayer, but our spiritual world is connected to our physical world, and sometimes the first thing we need to do is eat and sleep. This was the first thing God did for Elijah when He met him in his place of discouragement. Before He spoke with Elijah and encouraged Him with truth, He had him eat a meal, take a nap, and then eat another meal (see 1 Kings 19:5-7). Sometimes we’re just worn out physically and the most spiritual thing we can do is take a nap and eat a meal.
Practice #3: Keep One Foot in the Water
I met the son of a Vietnam era Navy SEAL who told me that his dad and other SEALs had a phrase: “Always keep one foot in water.” No matter what enemy they’re facing, SEALs are confident that if they get into water, they will have the advantage, because they are trained to thrive in that environment, which is dangerous and even fatal to everyone else.
The presence of God is to us as believers like water to a Navy SEAL. For us, the presence of God is where we thrive, and where the lies of the enemy die. We’re called to “always keep one foot” in the presence of God, because the moment we retreat to His presence, the lies of discouragement, hopelessness, powerlessness fall away, and we are filled with the truth that He is with us, that there is boundless hope for our situation, and that we are not alone.
Practice #4: Find Your Encouragers
God designed our vital connections with other believers to be one of the primary sources of courage in our lives. In the Scriptures, we see that whenever He called somebody, He placed somebody beside them as an encourager. Joshua had Moses. Jonathan had his armor bearer. David had Jonathan. Esther had Mordecai. Paul had Barnabas, and Timothy had Paul. None of these people would have had the courage to do what God had called them to do without the presence of encouragers around them.
Spiritual community is essential to keeping our guard up, which is why we must do all we can to avoid offense, pride, fear, or shame that would lead us to distance or isolate ourselves from others. So often when I have gotten worn out, dropped my guard, started to believe lies, and ended up discouraged, it has been the community around me who has spoken truth to me and restored my courage. The more I have benefited from the strength of community in my life the more ridiculous it seems to me to try to face battles alone. Why would I show up to the battle alone when I don’t have to?
Establishing practices that protect our heart and keep it healthy will enable every one of us to win the battle to stay encouraged. The challenge is to make it and keep it a priority, and this, “above all else,” is what we must do.
— by Banning Liebscher, author of the book and study The Three-Mile Walk: The Courage You Need to Live the Life God Wants for You
About the Author
BANNING LIEBSCHER is a pastor, speaker, and author. Along with his wife, SeaJay, he founded Jesus Culture, a ministry of worship, conferences, and leadership development. In 2014, they planted Jesus Culture Sacramento, a local church in California with a passion to see people fully engaged in becoming who God has called them to be and to do what God has called them to do.
We do need to learn to be all that we can be . . . by and through the Spirit of God, living for the eternal rather than the temporal. It is way too easy to get caught up in the day to day or even a lifetime and not see the big picture of God’s plan that is unfolding to bring in the eternal day of righteousness and justice. May His grace and mercy continue to bless as we fervently seek to walk in His statutes and obey His commands.
Pastor Dale