Overcoming Discouragement

Are you feeling discouraged? I have found myself—and a surprising number of people around me—to be facing discouragement in this season. People are weighed down, heavy in their hearts, and wondering when things will change. I find myself feeling heaviness in my soul, an ache for things to be as they should, and a yearning for Jesus to come and right all the wrongs that are surrounding us. In our culture, our politics, our churches, our homes—so much dysfunction and brokenness.

Do you look around and feel the weight too? Why is this happening, how can we change it, and what does the Lord want from us in this season?

I think Scripture gives us some pretty solid, time-tested, and proven advice. Again and again, we try other ways to deal with our anxiety, our depression, our heartache and sorrow, but to no good end. We may medicate ourselves into not caring or dull the pangs in our souls, we may numb ourselves with doom-scrolling, we may placate ourselves and justify our dissatisfaction with trolls on YouTube or Reddit who say all the things that are running in our heads. But the answer to freeing ourselves from this anxiety, from this depression, from this mourning in the soul is only found in what our Father clearly lays out in Scripture. So…put down your phone (maybe after reading this), get off social media, forget about all your self-help books, and pick up your Bible with me as we go to the very Word of God.

1. Pour out your heart to God (Psalm 62:8)

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” — Psalm 62:8

Okay…time to get a little nerdy here. Sometimes, it’s easy to read Scripture and forget that it’s living and active and designed to cut to our hearts. We rush through the words and don’t take time to let the truth of the Scriptures seep down into our hearts and change the way we think and live. Sometimes, looking back at the original language helps me slow down—even if I don’t find anything particularly eye-opening and profound that I couldn’t have seen without the Hebrew or Greek. Just taking the time to look into it slows me down and lets the Word work in my heart. So let’s take a look at the Hebrew here…

The phrase “pour out your heart” comes from the Hebrew verb שָׁפַךְ (shāphakh), used here in the form shiphkhu (שִׁפְכוּ), meaning “pour out,” “spill,” or “shed.”Root: שָׁפַךְ (shaphak)Meaning: to pour out (as water, blood, or wrath), to shed, to gush forth, to spill.

It’s a very physical word—it implies emptying something completely, like tipping a vessel until every last drop runs out.

In Hebrew thought, the heart (לֵב — lev) wasn’t just emotions—it was the seat of the whole inner life: your thoughts, will, emotions, desires, and understanding.

So to “pour out your heart” literally pictures emptying the contents of your inner being before God—holding nothing back. It’s total transparency.Think of:

• A clay jar being tipped over until there’s nothing left inside.

• A soul unburdening itself without reserve—all fear, confusion, grief, and longing—spilled at His feet.

  
  

This same verb is used throughout Scripture, and it helps us feel the intensity of the expression:

• Lamentations 2:19 — “Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord.”

• 1 Samuel 1:15 — Hannah says, “I am a woman troubled in spirit … I have poured out my soul before the Lord.”

• Psalm 142:2 — “I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him.”

  
  

Each instance carries this sense of deep, emotional release—not a formal or restrained prayer, but a heart emptied into God’s presence.

Before we move on from this verse, I think it’s important to not run past that last little word at the end of this verse, Selah. Re-read the verse:

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”

Selah means to pause the singing (because these are songs) and reflect on what you just sang (or, for us, read).

Trust God…all the time. Empty out every part of your heart and soul before Him. He’s not afraid or unable to answer your questions, fears, and aches. He is a place for you to run, hide, and find protection. Pause now. Ponder what that means. Think about it. Meditate on it. Let it soak into your soul.

This passage (and so many others) shows us that when we are discouraged, God desires for us to run to Him, to find our safety in Him. Why then do we so quickly run to the internet, a podcaster or even preacher we like, friends, or literally anything other than God when we are discouraged? Sometimes I don’t even realize it, but I turn to grumbling and complaining to deal with my discouragement before I turn to the Lord. Admitting that makes me a little embarrassed, but I don’t think I’m the only one who fights against this.

2. Remember His Faithfulness (Lamentations 3:21–23)

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:21–23

Okay, we aren’t going to do a full breakdown of each passage. I’d really encourage you to do that on your own. Get a good commentary, the E-Sword or Blue Letter Bible app, or even Google or ChatGPT (however, you’ll always want to double-check the veracity of responses from those sources), and sit down with your Bible to pick apart these passages. Read them slowly and meditate on them. Selah. Let the truth of each word sink down into your soul and change the way you think and live. For now, together, we’ll just look at one word in this passage to ponder on…

“…his mercies never come to an end…”

God’s mercies never end. Cool. He always has mercy for us. Next verse.

At least that is how I’ve treated this in the past. But what does His mercy mean? And what does it communicate about His heart for me when I am troubled?

“His mercies” — רַחֲמָיו (rachamav)From רֶחֶם (rechem), meaning “womb.” God’s rachamim are tender, nurturing compassions—the kind a mother has for her child. This is mercy that feels—deep, visceral compassion.

He is moved to action by His own love for us. God’s mercy isn’t cold pity—He doesn’t feel sorry for us and throw us a bone now and then. His mercy is womb-deep care for His people. For you. For me. The way I feel when my children are in trouble and need me. When I hear my baby boy crying “Mama” in the middle of the night. The time my 9-year-old son was lost at a huge Christmas fair and I was ready to move heaven and earth to find him (we did—praise God!). When my oldest son was struggling to make friends at his school and would come home so discouraged and lonely each day…my heart was so broken for him. I ached to fix it for him but was unable to do much other than comfort and encourage him.

Our God is not unable. Our God doesn’t lose us in a crowd, and He isn’t too tired to come running in the dark night of our souls when we cry out for Him. Our God is the perfect Father who feels deep, tender, and fierce motherly compassion for His children.

We are only on step two and I’m already feeling my discouragement fade away…let’s keep pressing in together.

3. Fix your eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” — Hebrews 12:2

Again, we’ll just look at one aspect of this passage to get you started. The rest is up to you!

“Looking to Jesus.”

“Looking to Jesus” — ἀφορῶντες (aphorōntes)From ἀφοράω (aphoraō) = to fix one’s eyes upon by turning away from everything else.Literally: “looking away from all else to Jesus.”It’s not a casual glance—it’s a deliberate, focused gaze that excludes distractions.

What does that mean for us? When discouragement surrounds us (v. 1 speaks of “the race”), we redirect our gaze entirely to Christ—not our pain, progress, or performance.

Wow. We cannot look at Jesus and anything else, but how often do we do exactly that? We don’t fix our gaze and let everything else fade away. We look to Jesus and then quickly back to our problems and say, “What are you going to do, Lord?” Or we look to Jesus and then the brokenness around us and say, “Where are you, Lord?” But this passage tells us to forsake looking at anything else. Quit looking at what discourages you. Look to Jesus. In short…

QUIT SCROLLING. Get off YouTube. Change your conversations. Consider what you’re feeding your mind. Is it sowing despair and discouragement in your heart, or is it helping to cultivate a heart that is growing in Christ and eyes firmly fixed on Jesus?

4. Pray Persistently (Philippians 4:6)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” — Philippians 4:6

What does Paul mean not to be anxious about anything in this passage?

“Do not be anxious” — μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε (mēden merimnate)merimnaō = to be pulled apart in different directions; to be distracted with care or worry.From merimna, meaning dividing the mind.It literally describes a fractured inner life—your thoughts pulled between fear and faith.Paul isn’t saying, “Never feel concern.” He’s saying, don’t let anxiety divide your heart away from trust in God.

I am one of those strange breeds of people who have random strangers at the grocery store share their life story with me. I don't usually ask or do anything to prompt those types of conversations, but for whatever reason, lots of people feel pretty instantly comfortable with telling me about their life, their struggles, their pains, and their hopes. It used to weigh my heart down. People I knew, and some I didn’t, would share these things with me and it would make me heartsick. I’d be anxious and even went through a season in my teens where it would make me physically ill carrying the knowledge of the burdens the people were carrying. They felt as if they became my own. And I didn’t know what to do with that until I had a friend in my twenties tell me that I wasn’t made to carry those burdens. I remember asking, “Well, what in the world do I do with them? How do I put them down?” And he told me to pray and intercede for these people. That is how I release it back to God.

Sometimes it’s the burdens of other people and sometimes it’s your own burdens, but either way, you aren’t meant to carry them. When we carry them, we become anxious. Our heart and mind become divided and we are pulled between fear and faith. When we submit those in prayer that is filled with gratitude, the fear fades and the faith rises to the top.

5. Strengthen Yourself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6)

“And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” — 1 Samuel 30:6

When everything else collapsed—leadership, loyalty, safety—David’s foundation was still intact: his God. While this verse doesn’t describe how he strengthened himself, the surrounding passage gives hints (vv. 7–8):

• He called for the ephod—to inquire of the Lord.

• He sought divine guidance, not human approval.

• He obeyed what God said—and victory followed.

  
  

So his strengthening was a combination of:

• Remembering God’s faithfulness,

• Reconnecting through prayer, and

• Responding in obedience.

  
  

It’s kind of the first few steps we’ve mentioned so far, but following those steps of prayer and remembrance, our response of obedience is what provides the kind of strength that only comes from God.

6. Lean on Others (Galatians 6:2)

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2

Most of us have read this one, nodded our head, and amen’ed that in church before, but what does it look like to bear another’s burden? Sometimes we act like it means have sympathy on that person, to send an encouraging note, and pray for them. Don’t get me wrong, we should definitely do those things for one another, but I think there’s something a little deeper there—something that costs us more than a few minutes when we think of them or the cost of a postage stamp and notecard…

“Bear” — βαστάζετε (bastazete)From βαστάζω (bastazō), meaning to lift, carry, take up, support, endure.It’s the same word used of Jesus “carrying” His cross (John 19:17). In context, it means to take responsibility for helping someone carry what is crushing them.

So what does this mean? It does not simply mean sympathy, but shared weight. It’s the kind of love that gets underneath another’s struggle and shoulders part of it.

Paul links mutual care with Christlike love:Jesus bore the unbearable for us—the cross, our sin, our shame.When we bear one another’s burdens, we mirror His sacrificial compassion.

It’s the antidote to discouragement in isolation: the Church becomes a living extension of Christ’s arms, lifting those who cannot lift themselves. Sometimes that means opening your home when it would be easier to send a sympathy card; it means writing a check when saying “I’m praying for you” is simpler. Sometimes we need to show up to someone’s house with a meal, to take their kids for the day, to come and clean their house, to visit them in jail, to cry and mourn with them…sometimes bearing one another’s burdens costs us more than we feel like giving, but it is what we are called to. When we learn to live in community like this, we help lift discouragement from bearing down on each other’s shoulders and lighten their hearts.

7. Rejoice in Hope (Romans 12:12)

Here is the last one…

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” — Romans 12:12

We’ll pick apart this one together…

“Rejoice in hope” — τῇ ἐλπίδι χαίροντες (tē elpidi chairontes)elpis = hope, confident expectation, trust in what God has promised.→ Not wishful thinking, but assured anticipation of God’s future faithfulness.chairō = to rejoice, be glad, find joy or delight.

Rejoicing in hope means that even when circumstances are discouraging, joy springs from what you know will come—not from what you see right now. It’s a future-focused joy anchored in God’s promises. Joy doesn’t deny reality; it draws strength from eternity.

“Be patient in tribulation” — τῇ θλίψει ὑπομένοντες (tē thlipsei hypomenontes)thlipsis = pressure, affliction, distress, trouble.→ Literally, “to be pressed, squeezed, or crushed.”hypomenō = to remain under, to endure steadfastly, to stay the course.

Patience here isn’t passive—it’s courageous endurance under pressure. It’s the same word used of Jesus “enduring the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul is calling believers to stay under the weight of hardship without giving up, trusting God’s purpose in it.

“Be constant in prayer” — τῇ προσευχῇ προσκαρτεροῦντες (tē proseuchē proskarterountes) proseuchē = prayer, worshipful communication with God. proskartereō = to persist, to devote oneself to, to continue steadfastly in.

To “be constant” in prayer is to maintain an ongoing posture of dependence—prayer as the rhythm of resilience. It’s not occasional, reactive prayer, but a lifestyle of communion that keeps the heart alive through discouragement.

When life presses you down, don’t let it press out your hope.

Rejoice in what’s coming. Endure what’s happening. Pray without ceasing.

That’s the spiritual posture of a heart that refuses to let discouragement define it.

I hope this leaves you filled with the love of God. I hope your eyes have become fixed and locked on Jesus. I hope that the truth of God’s Word has rewired your heart and mind to be filled with courage and hope in what’s to come instead of the dread or aching you carried while looking at what’s ahead.

If you are feeling as if your head has been lifted and your heart has been lightened, praise God! Really…right now…give the Lord praise! If you are still struggling with discouragement, go back to those steps, meditate on His Word, remind yourself of His faithfulness, and fix your eyes on Jesus. The things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Selah.