Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Heb. 12:12–13)

Despondency is one of the great avenues of attack from the Evil One. Our discouragement is his delight, and he can use it to great effect, even for those involved in ministry. To serve Christ is not to walk around in blissful unawareness of life’s realities. The Christian life involves serious struggle.

Therefore, this call to step forward—in “the strength that God supplies” (1 Peter 4:11), as it were—must not only ring in our ears but reverberate in our hearts. Those who seek to follow Christ must be prepared to declare, I absolutely refuse to gratify the devil by staying downhearted. He would love nothing more than to see our arms enfeebled, our knees buckling, and our paths veering off the course of obedience.

Despondency is one of the great avenues of attack from the Evil One.

This article was adapted from the sermon “Essentials of Christian Maturity” by Alistair Begg.