Lisa Barry: When was the last time you sought God in earnest? Has it been a while? What was the reason? Maybe illness. Or an accident. Are the times you earnestly seek God only when the bottom falls out of life and you feel powerless to do anything?

Today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot challenges us to seek God in earnest daily, no matter what the circumstances. Find out how seeking God on a regular basis can change your life. Let's learn more as we begin this Thursday edition of Gateway To Joy. Here's Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That's what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, talking with you today about discouragement.

I feel quite sure that there are a few people listening in right now who are feeling greatly discouraged. I trust that I have some words which will encourage you. But I will start with a letter from somebody who is probably in a similar boat. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I read letters from people who were thoroughly fed up with their situations. Everything seemed impossible. They were discouraged.

The source of that discouragement is the "ancient foe who seeks to work us woe. His craft and power are great, and armed with bitter hate, on earth is not his equal." We're talking of course of the enemy of God, whose name is Satan. Therefore, he is going to do everything he can to discourage His beloved children.

Now here's a letter from a man named Jim. He says, "Several years ago I used to get your program each morning on the way to work. I've since changed jobs and just didn't get a chance to hear you. I now have two full-time jobs. I need them, since I have two children in college. And as you can imagine, it's quite expensive.

In spite of it, I wouldn't have it any other way. They are the joy of my life. The Lord has, in quite clear terms, told me that He doesn't want me to take on any debt, since He has a plan for me in the future. I must remain debt-free. Thus, I must work two jobs to support my children in college.

Anyway, my second job is that of a truck driver. After working eight hours in the office, I drive from"-listen to this-"four hundred to six hundred miles before I can get any much needed sleep. The whole purpose of this letter is to tell you that while turning the dial on the radio in my 18-wheeler, I heard your very pleasant voice once again, and what a joy it was for me.

Thank you for being there in the middle of the night when I needed some words of encouragement most. You are an angel sent from God. Even though I live near Rochester, New York, I drive through Boston on many weekends. I will always think of you and pray for you when I am near Boston."

Isn't that a wonderful letter? I think maybe I introduced it as one of these letters which was indicating great discouragement. Well, I apologize for that. It was quite the opposite. It is so encouraging to read of a faithful father who is willing to make that kind of sacrifice for his two college-age children. Imagine, eight hours a day in the office and four hundred to six hundred miles before he can get to bed at night. Well, may God bless you, Jim, and thank you so much for that encouragement that you sent to me.

A father's love for his daughters is sacrifice, isn't it? It requires sacrifice. I'm so glad that that man who needed words of encouragement was given those words. It is through the providence of God, of course, that it happens to be on at that particular night when he particularly needed it.

When I tape these programs, of course, I have no way of knowing who will be listening or even when they are going to be aired. It's always months after I have taped them. So it's my prayer that today's words will encourage you.

The Bible says, "Do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged." Do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged. And then we have Paul's list in 2 Corinthians 4:8,9. He says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

That's a mysterious passage, isn't it? And one that you probably didn't grasp just on that first reading. You certainly can grasp verse 8, the part about being hard pressed on every side and crushed and perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. But this business of carrying around in our body the death of Jesus-what does it mean?

If we have received Jesus Christ into our lives, there should be a visible difference in the way we live. The life of Jesus is not going to be revealed in our mortal body, unless we are willing to die to ourselves, as Jesus Christ did. To carry around in our body the death of Jesus-His total, self-giving, self-donation, self-abandonment-so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal body.

Someone may be listening today who is thoroughly fed up with life. There's no use whatsoever in going on. Nothing works. You're saying, "God doesn't love me. He never answers my prayers." He does answer, and sometimes the answer is no. But He says to you with great compassion, "Come to Me. Take My yoke. Learn of Me."

May I ask you today if you've ever really done that? Have you come to Him? Have you shouldered the yoke of the will of God on your shoulders? Are you daily learning? Have you gotten down on your knees and been honest enough to tell Him you can't do it anymore? You're helpless. You're discouraged. You're incapable of improvement. You even wish you could die.

Are you deeply conscious of your faults and failings? Well, that's a good sign. Yes, it is. We don't need to wallow in those faults and failings. It's a terrible swamp to wallow in and nobody's likely to extract you from it, except God Himself. But you have to make up your mind that you want what God wants to give you.

Now let me read to you from one of these old devotional books that I love so much. It starts out with those words that I just read you from 2 Corinthians 4: "Perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed." Then a poem by Samuel Longfellow: "Discouraged in the work of life, disheartened by its load, shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road. But let me only think of Thee, and then new heart springs up in me."

"Discouragement is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, in consequence of the difficulties by which it is beset and our already numerous failures in it." I think I'd better read that line again.

"Discouragement is an inclination to give up all attempts after the devout life, in consequence of the difficulties by which it is beset and our already numerous failures in it. We lose heart; and partly in ill temper, partly in real doubt of our own ability to persevere, we first grow querulous and peevish with God." Disgusted with God. Argumentative with God.

"Then we relax in our efforts to mortify ourselves and to please Him. It is a sort of shadow of despair, and it will lead us into numberless venial sins the first half hour we give way to it." Hmm. That should give us pause. When we begin to despair like that, we're likely to be led into sin in the very first half hour that we give way to that despairing mood.

"Never let us be discouraged with ourselves. It is not when we are most conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked. On the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light. And let us remember, for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins until we begin to cure them." We never perceive our sins until we begin to cure them.

And now a word from the Lord in Hebrews 11. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed by God, at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." What is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Well, one illustration of that would be cells, wouldn't it? The cells in the body. The cells everywhere in the world. They are not seen, but the things which are seen are made out of those things which are not seen.

Verse 4 says, "By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings, and by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. Before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

Perhaps someone is listening to me today who really has no faith, who really is not quite sure that God exists, and certainly doesn't expect that God is going to reward him. But here it says He does reward those who earnestly seek Him. I trust that each one of us is earnestly seeking God.

Lisa Barry: And I hope each one of us will take God at His Word. That's not an insult to Him, because He truly wants to help us and He wants us to ask for that help. If you'd like to know about a resource that would be a testimony of God's faithfulness, then I'd recommend a book by Amy Carmichael called HIS THOUGHTS SAID. Wouldn't you love to get a close look at a divine thought? This book helps to detangle some of the mystery of God's Word and offers it instead in a clear and challenging way.

For information on how to purchase a copy of that book, or if you'd like to purchase a copy of this one-week series called DISCOURAGEMENT, then give us a call here at this number: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Or you can write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth concludes this series on discouragement with excerpts from the book, THESE STRANGE ASHES. That's next time on Gateway To Joy.