The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - God's Secret Weapon When You're Discouraged

Episode Date: August 24, 2017

What's your instinct when you're discouraged? Are you tempted to sulk and to draw away from God? Today's show will uplift you and give you a powerful tool to help you resist that discouragement and dwell in hope, instead.

You're listening to the Jeff Kavana show. Episode 30, God's secret weapon when you're discouraged. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

Welcome to the show. I hope you are doing well in life right now. and if you're not, I've got a little bit of encouragement for you today. Hey, I really appreciate all of the feedback you're giving me on email at The Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com and also on iTunes and rating the show. It's been very, very helpful. It gives me a good idea of some of the topics that you'd like to hear about, some of the things that you are going through in your own life.

And it just really helps me out a lot. And it's a good relationship where we can talk to, one another. You know, every week as I think about the show and think about the topics that I'd like to share with you, oftentimes they're drawn from my own life and the people that I talk to. And today is one of those shows where I have run into a number of people who have been just plain discouraged in their life. And I was able to share a few things with them. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to share this with all my friends on the show here. Because I think, it's something that is applicable for every life. And I don't know of anybody who doesn't go

through times of discouragement in their life. And so I've entitled this show, God's Secret Weapon, When You're Discouraged. And I want to start off right away by just encouraging you right off the bat and let you know this, that if you are going through something, very discouraging right now, it could be something at work, you know, in a relationship at work, or maybe you got bypassed for a raise or somebody said something about you and it was very very discouraging maybe it was it's something to do with your health i know that that can be discouraging in your life where you you know hope deferred makes the heart sick scripture says and and you're hoping on something related to your health or you want to get back to exercise

um you want to you want to get back in shape whatever it is and you just feel very discouraged over it or a relationship in the family, these things can happen. And I understand that. And more importantly, Jesus understands that. And God has given us an amazing weapon when it comes to being discouraged. And what do we do when we find ourselves discouraged? So go ahead and kind of sit back. If you're driving in the car, all of the show notes are going to be available to you,

as we do in every show. If you're at home sitting on the back porch with your spouse, no need to simply write everything down right now if you don't want to, but just take it in. And I want today's show to be a show of encouragement for you and to lift you up and to give you a tool in which you can fight the battles that you're facing and resist that discouragement. God does not want you to live in a place of discouragement, but he wants you to live in hope. He wants you to live in a place of great hope and joy. And there are tough times in our life, but we have to know how to meet those. So the secret weapon that I want to introduce you to in the show today is something you've heard about before. You've often used the phrase.

You've used the word. But maybe didn't completely understand the biblical aspect of it, and that is the secret weapon of praise. To praise God in tough situations is the most uplifting thing that you can do in your life. And before you even come to a conclusion right now of, oh, I've tried that, I want you to listen and bear me out here, listen to it, because I myself have gone through a time of discouragement in my life. When I was about 25 years old, I went through about a three or four month period where, wow, things were not looking good for me. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it was full out. I was depressed. I was down. And all my friends were getting through

graduate school. And I was starting up a new church at 25 years old, living in my mother-in-law's basement, driving a school bus for $200 a month for a junior high school system. And, oh, I felt discouraged. But my discouragement was due to a lot of different things at that time. But I got to tell you this it was praise that ended up getting me out of that it was a confession of praise now that's what i want to get into here for uh for this particular show and i believe it's going to help you i really do you know when when you look at the great stories in the bible of liberation we're really struck by the great dynamic deliverance of the lord you look at moses in the exodus and you look at gideon and samson of course david and goliath is one of the epic stories

You've got Jahashafat surrounded by three armies. We'll take a look at that here today, Ezra and Nehemiah. Peter and Paul, I mean, you've got all kinds of stories in the Bible where God has a dynamic deliverance for his people. But the question that I have for you today, as you're listening to this show, is does God still do that with his people? Does he still move mightily? Well, I know you might be going through a discouraging time right now.

The answer is yes, he does. He doesn't change. he doesn't say well i'm going to act this way in the old testament i'm going to act another way in the new testament and after that well who knows no no that's not that's not god he's the same yesterday today and forever so i want you to to think with me right now and you can even say it out loud that there is hope there is hope in god in your situation i like what zachariah four six says not by our own might or by our own power, but by his spirit, says the Lord.

The situation that you find yourself in, or a loved one, or somebody at work, the answer here is by his spirit. And the pattern is consistent in Scripture, and that is that when faced with difficulty, the people of God praise their God. And the pattern of this, we can see it, going all the way back to the book of judges.

In twice in the book of judges, the question is asked, who will go up first in battle? Speaking of one of the 12 tribes, judges chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 and judges 20 and verse 18, both times the question is who will go up first in battle? And the answer is the same in both. You probably know that answer. It's the tribe of, right, Judah. It's the tribe of Judah. And there's a reason for that, I believe. Now, there's a natural reason why Judah would go up first in battle,

or if they were discouraged or surrounded by enemies. There's a natural answer to that. And it's simply, Judah's the biggest tribe. So that makes sense. But I think there's a spiritual dimension to this that is often overlooked, and that is hidden in the name, in the meaning of the name Judah. and the word judah in hebrew yahuda means praise it means praise now uh they're asking an important question in the book of judges when you're in a tough

place what do you do first and i'd like you to think about that for a moment what do you do first when you're in a tough place when you're in a place of discouragement what do you do first well some people throw pots and pans some people will blame other people curse, they'll self-medicate, they'll run, they'll do all kinds of different things. But God says, let Judah go up first. Now let's take a look at that word Judah for a moment there. In Hebrew, it's Yehuda, Judah, and it means praise. And it comes from the root word, and this will be in the show notes, so don't risk driving off the road to write this down. Y-A-D-A-H. Y-A-H. Y-A-D-H. Yada, and Yada means to throw or to cast. It's literally like an archer's term, you know, kind of to hit the

target, throw or cast something. When it's used in the biblical text, it takes on the meaning of to confess, yes, and to declare, both to confess and to declare. The two go hand in hand. So praise, biblical praise, takes on this meaning of to confess something or to declare something. So that in your discouragement, in your tough time, you will respond with praise, which we know at this point. We don't know all the details, do we? We haven't gone that far, but it means to confess something. It means to declare something. The two go hand in hand. Now, in the context of prayer, Yada, this root word for Yehuda, praise, still retains the root meaning of confession. However, instead of confessing God's attributes, which we're going to do, it becomes the confession

of our sins to God. Now, this brings a new dimension to praise and worship, doesn't it? And that is that when you're faced with a battle, when you're faced with discouragement and tough times, not only do we confess who he is in a situation, but we confess our sins to him. And there's a reason for that. And that is that you can't fight battles

if you are hobbled by sin. Venial sin weakens our relationship with God. We can't afford to be weak in the midst. to battles. We have mortal sin. Mortal sin totally cuts off your relationship and the life of God. You certainly can't face discouragement in battles with mortal sin. So confession is the first order of praise here. If you are struggling with sin and you're discouraged right now, man, I want to encourage you to go to confession. I want to encourage you to go to confession. And I even talk a little bit about this and show 21, three powerful ways to beat sin.

go to confession, confess that venial sin, confess that mortal sin if it's necessary. You need to be strengthened, okay? Confess. Psalm 79, in fact, even illustrates this point that both a confession of sin and a confession or a declaration of who God is are both wrapped up in this idea of praising God. That's Psalm 79. You can do that on your own. So what are we going to confess about the Lord? We've confessed sin, but when it comes to praising God, What are we going to confess?

What are we going to confess? Well, paragraph 236 of the catechism, one of my all-time favorites, gives two categories that we really got to know. You know, when it comes to confessing who God is or declaring who God is in praise, and we'll get to later on why that's important, two categories are important here. Let me read this paragraph 236 of the Catechism to you. It says, the fathers of the church distinguish between theology and economy. Big words, we'll get to it.

Theology refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and economy to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the economy, the theology is revealed to us. But conversely, the theology illuminates the whole economy. are we going any further there and get you confused. Let me just break it down. When we're talking about the theology and the economy, we're talking about two things. And these are important for you to know how to praise God. Theology is the mystery of the Trinity. You need to come to know the mystery of the Trinity. Break it down even further. You need to know the heart of your

heavenly father. You need to know the heart of your heavenly father. Now, the second thing is the economy. What's that? It is his plan. It's the father's household plan. And he reveals himself in his works, what he has done. His plan is revealed in what he has done. So if you put the two together, theology and economy, it sounds like this. You need to get to know the heart of your heavenly father and his plan. Why? Because you need some basis on which to trust him in discouraging times. Get that? You need to learn to trust him, and you can only do that when you know his heart and you know his ways. Now, how do you get to know that? Well, Bible study is a good way to get to know his ways, get to know his heart. Prayer

is a way. The sacramental life, living a sacramental life with the Eucharist and confessions, certainly, lives of the saints, the catechism, everything that's core to our faith. We read it with those two things in mind. I want to know my father's heart, and I want to know his ways so I can trust him in tough times, and when I'm discouraged, I can begin to praise him and declare who he is in terms of his heart and who he is in terms of what he's done, his plan. Isn't that beautiful? Let me give you an example of how important this is.

if I were to suddenly say to you that I'm going to bring into this show in just a minute or so, Mr. John Q. Public, okay? And I'm going to bring him onto the show, and he's going to introduce himself, and then I want you to spend about five minutes just praising him. Okay? So, ladies and gentlemen, introduce to the Jeff Kaven show, Mr. John Q. Public. He's here. He's talking to you. And now I want you to praise him. Now, you might start off with praise you, John. Praise you, John. Glory to you, John. Hallelujah, John. Glory to you. Alleluia, Maranatha. Thank you, John. And after about a minute, you would be calling my producer, Marisa, and saying, who's John? Who's John? You see, very quickly you saw the fruitlessness of praising John when you don't know him. It's just empty words. but you know what happens so often and it's good it's good for what it is is that christians praise

god with just catch phrases there's no substance praise you god thank you jesus hallelujah glory to god thank you lord maranatha praise god praise god and that's good don't get me wrong don't get me wrong but that is really baby steps in the praise world you see biblical praise is rich and full and it's full of who he is, what he's done. And that's what you're going to confess, and that's what you're going to declare. So this is, in essence, what happens to many of us today when we do praise the Lord.

We settle with catchphrases, void of content, catchphrases. And that's not what we are called to do. I've oftentimes used this example in my talks where I share with people that I, when I first got married, I came home and I said to my wife every day, love you, babe, love you babe, day two, you know, day three, love you, babe, when I came in. Two months later, love you, babe, when I came in. And every once in a odd stick in one of those little, you know, like a finger and a trigger,

love you, love you, babe. And with a wink of the eye and, of course, women love that, you know. Kidding, you don't need to email me. But I would do this day after day, and then one day she said, why? And I said, because I do, babe. and she was asking me to think and to come up with reasons why I was, in a sense, telling her I love her. And I started thinking of her heart, and I started thinking of what she does. And I came up with a litany of reasons why I love her.

And it's the same way with the Lord. It's the same way with the Lord who say, hallelujah, which means praise God in Hebrew. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Praise you Jesus. but it doesn't get beyond that. And what we need to do is to listen to God as he stops us and says, why?

Why? Why do you love me? Why are you praising me? And that's where coming to know him comes in. And that's why it's important to study the Bible, and that's why it's important to be a person of praise. Now, I'm reminded of Psalm 22, 3, which says,

God is enthroned upon the praises of Israel. And this was certainly true with Israel in the Old Testament. God is enthroned on the praises of Israel. That means that he is enthroned. He's in the place of the king. He's in the place of authority and power upon the praises of Israel. So when we begin to praise God, here's what happens. And this is important for you to get.

And this is something I've had to learn in my life is that when I praise God, he is enthroned on those praises he is the king of kings and at that point it's important to remember that it doesn't change god but it changes your perspective on your discouragement and on your situation and you move from your limited power to god's unlimited power you move from your limited perspective to god's unlimited perspective and you you move from your limited knowledge and wisdom to his unlimited knowledge and wisdom when you begin to praise him. He is enthroned upon the praises of fill in your name. Why don't we do that just for a second right now?

Why don't we do that? And you just take your name instead of saying upon the praises of Israel, I want you to say upon the praises of, and I want you to say your own name, okay? God is enthroned upon the praises of Jeff. Good to hear yourself say that, isn't it? You might want to do that for the next week, Psalm 22, 3. In fact, write me.

I would like to know how that's working out for you, as Dr. Phil would say. I think it will work. Jahashafat in Second Chronicles 20 found this out. There was an alliance of three powerful armies around King Jahashafat, king of Judah in the south. They had converged, three powerful armies had converged on this little kingdom of Judah. and when the news of the attack reached King Jehoshaphat, he trembled with fear. And then in desperation, he turned his attention to God, prayed for deliverance,

saturating his prayer with praise. And he began extolling God as exalted and invincible. And then he added further praise for past victories of God that God had wrought and for promises that he had given. And he admitted in verse 12, I love it. Look it up. it, stick it in yellow. Learn how to mark your Bible. Learn how to mark your Bible. He says this. He says this in verse 12. He admitted, we are powerless, but our eyes are on thee. That's what praise does. That's what praise does. There's a shift that takes place in your powerlessness.

The shift is from your own self and your own resources to God's unlimited resources. The next day, by faith in God and his promises, Jahashafat's army marched to the battlefield in an unusual battle formation. The choir robes and all led the attack. And when they began to sing and praise God, the Lord caused the three armies that were surrounding Judah to fight among themselves

until they annihilated each other and not one enemy soldier survived. Glory. That's the way. it's done, right? That's the way it's done. I'm going to take a break. When we come back, I want to give you a scripture that is one that has changed my life. It's one that has, I think about it almost every day. And it is a scripture that back in 1983 changed my life. I'll be right back. There might be an upcoming ascension event happening near you, and we'd love for you to attend.

Almost every week, our inspiring Catholic speakers travel to parishes, schools, and organizations around the country to ignite hearts with the love of Christ. Discover and register for upcoming AscensionEvents at Ascensionpress.com slash events. Welcome back to the show. Once again, we could use your help, go to iTunes and rank the show, give us your feedback. You can send your feedback to me at The Jeffcaven Show at Ascensionpress.com. I read them all, I get them all, and I really, really appreciate that. We're talking about God's secret weapon when you're discouraged, and it is praise, and we understand from a biblical perspective that praise is not just a bunch of empty words,

it's not a bunch of clichés, it's not just catch phrases, but praise is rooted in a relationship with God is our father, and we know his ways, we know what to a way, expect. And we can count on them. We can trust him. And I'm going to give you a scripture. I mention that scripture in just a moment. Before I do that, I want to talk about one more thing which can get in your way of praise, and that is this, nominalism. That's a big word, isn't it? Fancy word. Nominalism. It's a philosophy. Look it up, Google it. Nominalism came out of the Middle Ages. Some say it's really rooted in Islam. And that Islam has a different

view of God. This is not a show on that, but Christianity and Judaism see God as father, Islam sees God as master. And as such, he is arbitrary. He can do what he wants. But Christianity teaches that God is not arbitrary. He cannot do anything he wants. He's bound by his character. He's bound by who he is. And you can count on him. Now, nominally, says that there are no absolutes. There's no universals that stay the same. Everything is in flux. It can change. You can't really depend upon a universal truth. Like we would say, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Nominalism would say, well, you can't count on that. Now, we might not believe in nominalism, and we might believe in theory that God is the same

yesterday, today, today, and forever. But in reality, in practice, our life might not reflect that. And here's the reason why. When we do something wrong, we crouch down, we put our hands over her head, we expect that great big bat from heaven to hit us over the head because we did something wrong or if something bad happens to us, we know that God is out to get us. That's thinking that is not based in a relationship as a father and son, father and daughter, or based in covenant. That's fear. And perfect love casts out fear. But sometimes we relate to God like this in the times of discouragement because of our own earthly father in the relationship we had with him.

I know this is a kind of a downer in some ways people might say, but it's a reality, and that is some people experienced a poor father. He came home from work, and half an hour later, he was different after three Manhattans, and he changed. God doesn't do that. God doesn't do that. You know, I'm making light of this, but God could have a billion Manhattans, and he wouldn't change. But your dad might have with three. And maybe you couldn't count on him to be that faithful father that you desperately need and want inside.

Here's the good news, and I'm going to pray for you, by the way, but here's the good news. news, God has given us Jesus Christ, his son, to give us an example. He's a living icon of the Father. And if you see Jesus, you see the Father. He's also given us great saints who have exemplified the character of our Heavenly Father. And we, of course, have really good popes that we can look to that have been examples to us in the early apostles and the saints, of course, are our examples. And so I want to encourage you to read them and develop a relationship with a number of very good strong saints who were fathers in the faith and learn from them.

And that will help to heal that and also take that wound to confession. All right. Now here's the scripture that I want to share with you that I think is very powerful in times of discouragement. So, you know, this is part of God's secret weapon, praise. Isaiah 61.3 says this. I like what Isaiah says. He says, God, oh, this is good. You might even want to pull over on this one.

I don't know. Well, just drive safe, okay? God has given us a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Let me say that again. Okay, so you did pull over. A garment of praise. God has given you, my friend, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Now, if you have a spirit of despair and you are discouraged today, I'm here to tell you as your brother, God's given you a new garment. It's a garment of praise. Now, what is a garment? Well, you know what a garment is. You can have an Armani suit. You can have Levi pants. You can have Nike shoes.

If you have Nikon shoes, I see where you're going, I guess. but God has given you garments to put on in the natural. In the spiritual, God has given you a garment, and it's a garment of praise. But just like the natural, you have to put it on. When you wake up in the morning, you don't just magically, mysteriously, have your nice clothes on and you're ready for work. No, you had to put your clothes on one item at a time, and you had to put them on correctly. Same way in the spiritual life. If you're discouraged and you're in despair and you're feeling dead,

and depressed, put on a garment of praise. You might say, but Jeff, I don't feel like it. No one ever said anything about feelings, did they? Praise is not predicated upon feelings. It is not based on feelings. It's not based on feelings. It is an opportunity of obedience. It is an act of the will to praise God. And so what do you do? You get up in the morning and maybe you are discouraged. Here's what I want to encourage you to do this week. Every morning when you get up, make a note to yourself on the bedstand,

make an alarm go off on your smartphone, put a little note card on the mirror in the bathroom, and simply say this. Isaiah 61.3, put on a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair today. and then begin to praise him and thank him. Now you might think that your praise language is limited because you don't know the Bible so well or the catechism and you really don't know God that well, his nature and his will.

Well, start doing something about it. Start reading the Bible. Start doing Lexio-Devina in the morning. Start praying. Stop off on the way to work for a holy hour. Start to come to know some aspects of his character and his will and what. what he's done and start to incorporate that into your praise as you put that garment on.

Oh, I want to hear from you. I want to hear how this is working in your life. I've done this. I'm the first to admit. I have been discouraged before. I have been on the brink of despair before. And sometimes my wife was the one who said, you need to go to church and have a holy hour and you need to praise God.

And I said, you need to praise God. Pretty mature of me. and I listened to her and I went, and you know what? It worked. It worked. It worked. It worked. So do it.

Do what Hebrews 13 says. Hebrews 13 versus 15 and 16 says that we should offer God a sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice of praise. If you don't feel like it, make it a sacrifice. Make it a sacrifice of praise. I love it. I love it. Let me leave you with this.

Today, if you're discouraged, this week, if you're discouraged, Do what I'm telling you to do here as far as praising God. I promise you it will make a difference in your life. But I want you to remember this. When you're experiencing discouragement, whatever it is that brought you to that discouragement, don't rehearse it. Don't go back and start rehearsing. What brought you into this place of discouragement?

Don't rehearse it. Don't curse it. You don't just curse it and yell. And why owe me? And I eat worms and everything. No, don't rehearse it. Don't go back there. Don't curse it and don't nurse it. All right. Don't spend time dwelling on it. Enter into a life of praise. Glory to God. It's exciting stuff. I'll tell you, I'm lifting myself up today and getting all happy and God. Just thinking about how great he is and how my circumstances are so small compared to his power and his majesty and his great. greatness. Let's just close this off, shall we? Let's just praise the Lord together for a moment. The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, we praise you today.

We praise you for who you are. You are our Father. You're so faithful and you are so gentle and you're so filled with justice. And Lord, you are there. You are there constantly. And you have created the stars and they speak of your glory. everything on earth speaks of your majesty and you delivered so many people in the old testament we think of of moses and the nation of israel and what you did for them and how you provided for them and i know that you will do that for me and i know that you'll do that for my friends who are listening i think about david facing the giant in his life how discouraging that could be but lord you gave him the proper weapon you gave him the proper weapon to defeat Goliath and I know you'll give me that weapon. I know you'll give my friends that weapon too in their

life. It may look small. It may not look conventional like everybody else's weapon, but it's enough for the task and I know that you can give that to us. We praise you, we thank you, and we do give you glory today in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Do one thing for me, my friend. Share this with someone who's discouraged. I want you to take just a few minutes today. I want you to think of two people that just might be a little bit discouraged or going through a tough time with marriage or finances or health or children or the evening news and send it to them and say, God bless you.

And God bless you. We'll see you next week. Thank you.