How can we conquer discouragement?

How can we conquer discouragement?
Here are 9 specific steps:
By: Charles Stanley

1. Look within. Prayerfully examine yourself for the underlying cause.
2. Admit you are discouraged. It’s easy to avoid, ignore, or lie about it. But denial is deadly and it guarantees failure.
3. Identify precisely what you are discouraged about. Name it, then face it.
4. Recall the nature of discouragement. Disappointments will come and go, but discouragement is a choice that you make.
5. Begin meditating frequently on God’s word. This way, you can accurately judge what you feel by what is real. (Psalm 3:2-4; 16:7-8; 63:6-8; 77:12; 119:15).
6. Take your area of discouragement to God in prayer. Ask him to reveal what He wants to teach you in this area of your life.
7. Focus on God, not your situation. Ask Him to help you see this disappointment and its lessons from His perspective.
8. View the cause as coming from the Lord. If we understand that He allows disappointments, we can find opportunity for growth, even in trouble.
9. Confess these truths aloud: The Father is with me in the pain; He’s in control of my life and has allowed this for a reason; He is a good God, who will turn this disappointment into blessing.

Discouragement may sound harmless enough, but don’t ever underestimate its destructive power. By keeping watch you can avoid this deadly trap. So write down these 9 steps on an index card, and then review the list whenever disappointments start to consume your thinking.

Amy’s thoughts on this. Sometimes it seems like a game that you just can’t seem to win. Like there is always something that is dragging you down into the pits of despair. It could be something at work, something in your personal life, or anything in between that is disappointing to you. It could be something simple as a desire you have to buy something, go somewhere, and even a desire you have or a plan you have to serve God. If these plans or desires do not match up with what God has in store for your life, you will be disappointed. Rather than kick your feet and allow yourself to be down and out, follow these 9 steps. Call upon God to help pick you up, dust you off, and guide you straight. God in an awesome God and he hears our cries and our laughter. Depend on Him and not on yourself.

Any thoughts or comments?