Feeling Defeated

Crushed. Broken. Ashamed. Grief-stricken. There have been many times that people have faced periods of feeling defeated. Sometimes you wonder why God didn’t answer you in the way He should have. Maybe you’ve been praying for a relative for years and they just seem to be getting worse and worse. Or maybe you were completely out of God’s will and prayed for something and His answer was no. There have been times when I’ve felt like maybe God wasn’t going to come through or perhaps He didn’t come through at that time. In these times you just want to give up on doing what you’ve been doing or call quits on God. However, through the years what I’ve come to understand about feeling like your defeated is that if you are in God’s will you are not defeated at all. One person in the Bible that most would be shocked to discover met what we would call defeat or failure is Jesus.

“And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. “

Matthew 12:38-42(ESV)

Here we see that Jesus went to this city wanting to perform miracles and reach the lost, but because the people were filled with doubt because they knew where He came from, He did not get as many miracles done. This town in particular was Jesus’ home town, so the desire to communicate God’s message effectively through miracles was probably there. However, like other towns Jesus went through, they did not receive Him. What was Jesus’ response to these things though? There were towns that He went to early in His ministry where they did not respond to Him the way that they should’ve and even rejected Him. What if He had decided to give up there and just wallow in defeat? He could’ve easily told God: “This isn’t what you’ve called me to do! No one wants me here, and they don’t seem open to the thing you told me to do! I’m so sick and tired of this!”

So, then, what? Jesus gives up His ministry the first year or two and BOOM, no one gets to become saved because Satan successfully tricked Jesus out of doing the will of God for His life. How crazy is that? My question for you is: what has God told you to do that you’re giving up on because you feel defeated? Maybe He told you to preach to that difficult coworker, maybe He didn’t tell you to preach at this time but to just live out the gospel so others who are watching can see that it can be done, or maybe He told you to start some business or finish that degree. Whatever He told you to do, you have become weary in well doing—or maybe just bored in well doing heh—and have completely given up on where you were called.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Galatians 6:9(ESV)

Sure, maybe this thing that you’re doing doesn’t seem like a big deal at all or maybe people are not responding at all the way that they should’ve. There can honestly be times where you go somewhere to do the will of God and people become hostile OR they just don’t seem like they would receive you even if you tried. Remember that Jesus and the other first generation disciples faced these things many times, but what did they do in these situations? Did they give up going onward? No, they never gave up on God and his mission and neither should we. So, maybe you’ve tried to attempt something and you didn’t succeed in the way you thought you should have. If God told you to do it, in His eyes you were successful, even if you can’t see it in the physical.

Don’t despair or lose hope in whatever assignment God has you doing just because things look bleak. I’ve had plenty of times where I wanted to abandon assignments, mostly because they people just didn’t seem like they wanted what I had initially, but what I’ve realized is that people may not always want what you have, but they still need it. God tells you to stay at that job you hate, in that degree you struggle with, with that husband who gets on your nerves, or at that same boring church because He wants you to offer what He’s placed inside of you to those people. He needs you to show them who He is when they don’t know or maybe they have forgotten and need to be reminded. When walking for God in faith, know that you will face adversity and obstacles, but God is still there with you every step of the way. Keep taking those tiny steps of faith such as forgiving your coworker, boss, or family member when they’ve wronged you or praying for someone when God asks you to and before you know it you’ll be doing bigger and greater things in faith than you could’ve ever imagined. Be encouraged.