In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Next on In Touch, our great encourager.

When you experience discouragement, where you turn? Well, all of us are going to face it at one time

and the other because that's the world we live in. Then I have a choice. I can remain

discouraged or I can choose not to be discouraged. It's a choice we make. And sometimes

people think if they're discouraged, they're just hooked. No, you're not. It's a choice we make. And sometimes people think if they're discouraged, they're just hooked.

No, you're not.

It's a choice we make to remain in that state, because I have this choice.

I can allow discouragement to drag me down into the pits of despair and the pits, for example, of depression

and all the things that go with that and live that way.

Or I can look to our encouraging God and know in my heart

that he is going to take me out of this discouragement because he's there to do what? To lift us out.

He's there to remind us of who he is. He's there to help us to understand that his best for us is

is not what we've always planned. His best for us is always the best. God is

not a God of discouragement. He never says, oh, well, why don't you just do this and so? It's

really bad. But everybody else has having a bad time, too, so you might as well have it

with him. That's not who he is. And the one thing I want

you to discover in this message is this. We have a God who is an awesome encourager. But if you don't

know him personally as your Savior, then it won't make any difference. You just keep on living

in discouragement. And you can defend your discouragement. You can live in despair and defend it, and you can get other people to say with you,

yes, I do understand, well, if I were where you were, that's the way I'd feel that.

You don't want any of that stuff in your life.

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