Midterm Madness...

We focused on the massive plague that’s sweeping college campuses this time of year. An outbreak of major proportion. It’s called MIDTERMS! It’s amazing how students react this time of year. MIDTERMS are a phenomenon that breaks students down and turns them into sleep-deprived, caffeine-drained, mind-blown zombies that, when the week is over, feel like crawling in a hole somewhere. Just when life begins to soak back into their veins and reality sets in, a whole new problem is revealed. That problem, is discouragement.

Discouraged from ‘what should’ve been’ or ‘I really wished I had…’ or ‘I really needed to…’ It would almost be a blessing if discouragement ONLY showed up at MIDTERMS. When in reality, many of us face discouragement every day.

We looked at three characteristics of discouragement. One, it’s universal. Discouragement strikes everyone. None of us are immune. Young or old, rich or poor, everyone gets discouraged at one time or another. A second characteristic is that discouragement is recurring. Just because you get it once, doesn’t mean you won’t get it again. And third, it’s highly contagious. Discouragement spreads very easily.

We then looked at Scripture to find the poster-boy for MIDTERMS…his name, was Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the leader of the Jews who had returned to Israel from Babylon to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. God had given him a vision to rebuild what had been torn down. We pick up Nehemiah in Chapter 4, Verses 6-14. Nehemiah’s group started their project just like any student that starts the Fall Semester…full steam ahead and excitement galore. The Bible tells us that Nehemiah’s group ‘had a mind to work.’ And they worked great…till they got to the halfway point. They ‘built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height.’ Sounds like MIDTERM BLUES, huh?

The challenge we have is to know the signs of discouragement, see them coming and know the actions to take to overcome it.

What are the signs…first, is fatigue. Look at verse 10, ‘in Judah it was said, the strength of the burden bearers is failing…’ The people who had been working on the wall had been working for a long time…they were worn out. Interesting enough to notice, is, that the wall was only built to ‘half it’s height.’ Fatigue…a problem at MIDTERM…a problem in everyday life.

The second sign to be wary of, is frustration. The workers for Nehemiah became frustrated, saying ‘there is much rubbish; and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall’. We need to remember, these workers are rebuilding a wall that had been torn down and the rubbish and rubble for that destruction was immense. They had to clean up all that mess, just to clear off a spot to work. Talk about getting on your last nerve! But what about us, what is the junk and rubbish in our lives that consume our energy? The rubbish may be sins of wrong deeds, immoral thoughts or attitudes that we are unwilling to let go. Check out Hebrews 12:1 and see what that says about ‘laying aside every weight (rubbish)’ that slows us down!

And finally, the third sign is fear. The people were afraid for their lives because of all the threats from their enemies. And Nehemiah saw their fear. They were afraid of the enemies and as a result, felt like they could not succeed. They were ready to give up.

Fear is discouraging. When you are afraid, how do you respond? We MUST be careful not to let fear overcome us. We must be aware that when we are fearful we are also vulnerable to discouragement. This, is a strong tactic of satan…and it’s one of his strategies in defeating us.

After we looked at the causes, we then looked at the cures…

One of the first things Nehemiah did, was reorganize. Check out verse 13. He re-stationed and repositioned the men to maximize their work. Remember, they had already completed half of the wall. When we are discouraged, we seriously need to reorganize our priorities. Don’t quit…change your approach…grab a new attitude! Reorganize your life; don’t give up…do something about it.

Second, look at verse 14. ‘…do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome.’ Remember WHO He is…who HE is. Then we asked the questions, ‘How do you remember the Lord?’ and ‘What do you remember about Him?’ Remember He IS ALWAYS there with you. And remember that He IS great and awesome. When we get discouraged, we need to remember His promises, remember His goodness…and remember His power.

And finally, we cannot just sit back and let discouragement take control…we have to take an aggressive position and stand against it. Nehemiah told his men in verse 14 to ‘fight…’ He was saying don’t give up; don’t yield to discouragement but to resist with all their might. And we are to do the same thing! James 4:7 tells us to ‘resist the devil’. Resist his work in our lives, resist his negative thoughts. Take the fight of faith and stand firm against the work of satan.

MIDTERMS, a phenomenon that can sometimes wreck a semester. Discouragement, a phenomenon that can wreck a life.