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Following is an excerpt of "The Devil is in the Discouragement (2 of 2)" by Keith Krell added on 10/23/2009.
This content is part of a series.
The Devil is in the Discouragement (2 of 2)
Series: Haggai
Keith Krell
Haggai 2:1-23

I read once that the devil was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. They were a fiendish lot. There was hatred, jealously, deceit, lust, pride—all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled, DISCOURAGEMENT. When questioned, the devil said, "It's more useful to me than any other tool. When I can't bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement because so few people realize that it belongs to me."

I'm sure you would agree that discouragement is of the devil. There's nothing worse than a steady diet of discouragement. Yet, in our age of high expectations we can find a lot to be discouraged about. Perhaps you are discouraged about your marriage. Things just aren't what you'd like them to be with your spouse. You remember how your relationship used to be when you were first married, yet those days of bliss seem like another lifetime. The same is true with your kids. You have wonderful memories of how things used to be when they were children. Now that your children are teens or adults it seems like you no longer connect. Maybe you recall the glory days of college or a previous job. Those were the best years of your life. It seems that things were much easier and enjoyable back then. Now you feel underpaid, undervalued, and underutilized. It seems like life is passing you by. In your more honest moments, like me, maybe you would acknowledge that you know a thing or two about discouragement.

The good news is that the Lord Himself wants to encourage us. Today, He will tell us that the remedy for discouragement is to see God's perspective. Turn with me to Haggai 2 where we will see three important remedies to discouragement.

1. Stop looking back; start looking ahead (2:1-9). In these nine verses, we will see that God's people are discouraged because they have a bad memory. After Haggai's barn-burner of a sermon in 1:2-11, the people responded by beginning to restore the temple. Less than a month later Haggai has to preach a second sermon, because the people are guilty both of dwelling upon the negative and of forgetting the positive altogether. Memory can be a blessing or it can be a curse. For these Jews it had become a heavy burden that hindered their progress. In 2:1-3, Haggai writes, "On the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet saying, ‘Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?'" The people are guilty of looking back instead of looking ahead. Ezra ...

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