How Jesus avoided discouragement

Faith MattersPragmatic
Written By Edward Wolfe

No one in history changed the world like Jesus of Nazareth. His road to dominating the world was, however, not an easy or smooth one. How did he avoid becoming discouraged?

Although his followers often were obtuse and insensitive to his goals and character (Matthew 17:17); although the religious leaders of his day were openly hostile (Mark 11:18); although he sometimes faced discouragement (John 6:66-67); he persisted in his mission. How was he able to do that?

One way was that he continued to cheer himself up by looking at progress. In Matthew 13, one of Jesus’s five sermons in that Gospel, we get a clear glimpse of how much Jesus loved his close followers. “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear,” he told them (Matthew 13:16). He recognized that, though the number of authentic believers was small, they would be enough to change the whole world (Matthew 13:31-33).

Rather than focusing on his failures, that is on people who rejected him and the good news, Jesus focused on those who responded positively, like his close followers.

Rather than focusing on the rejection he experienced, he clearly focused on those who responded to him. Without ignoring the dangers for those who rejected the kingdom, his attention was constantly on his followers. They made it all worthwhile.

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Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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