Are u discouraged? Don't be!

Yes I know I haven't posted anything yet. I haven't been purposely trying to be a slacker... things have been very busy and I haven't really had a chance until now!
Today I was sulking about my health and someone sent me a email. Copied and pasted in the email was an article about discouragement from an old END. It was perfect, exactly what I needed to hear! It was everything I felt...it was like the Lord was personally pulling me up off the ground and putting me back on my feet! I love You Jesus!
Anyways here it is!

By Rick Warren
I believe procrastination is the number-one enemy of yourlife mission. You know what you’re supposed to do, but you keep puttingit off. That’s a deadly enemy. But a close second is discouragement. If Satan can’t get you to put off your life mission, he’ll try to make you quit altogether.

If I’m going to fulfill the purpose for which I was made,then I must resist discouragement. Galatians (6:9) says: “Let us not beweary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”Do you ever get tired of doing what’s right? Sure you do. When you’re discouraged, you’re ineffective, becausediscouraged people are the opposite of people of faith. When I amdiscouraged, I’m saying, “It can’t be done.” That’s the exact oppositeof saying, “I know God can do it because He’s said …”

I have a few questions for you. How do you handle failure?When things don’t go your way, do you start getting grumpy? Do you getfrustrated? Do you start complaining? Do you have a pity party? Do youfinish what you start? How would you rate yourself on persistence? TheBible says you need to resist discouragement. Don’t give in without a fight.
Nothing worthwhile ever happens without endurance andenergy. When a sculptor is trying to sculpt a masterpiece, do you thinkthe first time he hits the chisel with the hammer everything’s going tofall off and it will be a beautiful sculpture? No. He has to keephitting it and hitting it, chipping away. And that’s the way life is.Nothing really worthwhile ever comes easy in life. You keep hitting itand going after it—and little by little your life becomes a masterpiece.
The fact is, great people are really just ordinary peoplewith an extraordinary amount of determination. Great people don’t knowhow to quit.

I’m sure many of you are discouraged. Some of you arediscouraged over your children. Their lives are not going well. Some ofyou are discouraged about your marriage. It’s not what you thought itwas going to be. Some of you are discouraged about your ministry. Or about your finances, or your health, or an unanswered prayer.

I want to say something to you. It may sound mean, but it isn’t. I say this in love. If you’re discouraged, that’s your choice.You have chosen to be discouraged. Discouragement is always a choice. Itcomes from thinking discouraging thoughts—and you can change yourthoughts any time. You have a choice of what you’re going to focus on:either your purpose or your problems, God’s power or your weakness,Christ or your circumstances. It’s your choice.

Great people fight discouragement. Here’s a tip to help:When you get discouraged, ignore it. Just say to yourself, “I don’t havetime to be discouraged right now. I’m too busy fulfilling my mission.”You can be realistic, but you also need to be optimistic because you area Christian. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”And “Lo, I am with you always,” God says (Philippians 4:13; Matthew28:20). He will help you, and He will strengthen you. Faith starts withoptimism.

Some of you are going through some difficult times rightnow and you feel like dropping out of the race. You’re discouragedbecause the situation seems unmanageable. Unreasonable. Unfair. It mayseem unbearable. Inside you’re basically saying, “Lord, I just can’t take it anymore!” But you can. You can take it some more because God iswith you. He’ll enable you. Remember, you are never a failure until youquit, because quitting means you won’t make it to the finish line.
Resist discouragement! Finish the race God has set before you. (Dad:) Run the race, looking unto Jesus, the author andfinisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). Don’t look at yourself and allof your problems and difficulties. Look at Him, the one who died to saveyou from the greatest problem of all, death, and to grant you eternallife and love and happiness and victory over your problems, even hereand now!

They’re His problems too, you know, because you’re Hisservant whom He loves dearly, and He has solutions to each of theproblems that are such a weight and a burden right now. So lift up thehands that hang down and first lay all those weights aside, and thenlift those same hands and praise Him for the weights and burdens, forHis victories and solutions, and for every good thing that you can thinkof in your life. Discouragement can’t resist praise!