Do you ever feel as though you haven’t accomplished much in life, and many promises are unfulfilled? If so, you’re in good company; in fact, you are standing among spiritual giants.

Many great servants of God throughout history ended up feeling that they failed in their calling. The prophet Elijah looked at his life and cried, “Lord, take me home! I’m no better than my fathers, and all of them failed you. Please, take my life! Everything has been in vain” (see 1 Kings 19:4).

Discouragement is the devil’s most devastating tool in his attacks on Spirit-hungry saints. It has always been the enemy’s weapon of choice against God’s elect, and from the day you became serious about the things of God — determining in your heart to know Christ in his fullness — Satan has sought to discourage you. He has watched you dig deeper into God’s Word every day. He has seen you growing, changing, overcoming all worldliness, and he has made you a heavy target.

When King David was in a time of discouragement and struggle, he cried out: “I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long … I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart … My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me” (Psalm 38:6, 8, 10).

Are you tired of living in need when everything you will ever require has been provided? Perhaps your focus is wrong. You tend to dwell on your weaknesses, temptations and past failures — and when you look inside your own heart, what you see discourages you.