A Better Reason
Give Me One Reason Not To Give Up!
#1 No One is Exempt From Discouragement
Psalm 73:1-2 CEB
1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who have a pure heart.
2 But me? My feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped
Psalm 73:13-14 CEB
13 Meanwhile, I’ve kept my heart pure for no good reason; I’ve washed my hands to stay innocent for nothing.
14 I’m weighed down all day long. I’m punished every morning.
Psalm 73:3-7 CEB
3 because I envied the arrogant; I observed how the wicked are well off:
4 They suffer no pain; their bodies are fit and strong.
5 They are never in trouble; they aren’t weighed down like other people.
6 That’s why they wear arrogance like a necklace, why violence covers them like clothes.
7 Their eyes bulge out from eating so well; their hearts overflow with delusions.
Psalm 73:8-9 ESV
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
Psalm 73:10-12 ESV
10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
Psalm 73:-13-14 ESV
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.
Psalm 73:15-16 ESV
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
#2 Encouragement and Clarity Comes, When You Get in His Presence
Psalm 73:17 ESV
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
Psalm 73:18-20
18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate,
21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.
26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
Psalm 73:21-28 ESV
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 126:5-6
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalm 56:8 NLT
8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.