When You Feel Discouraged by the Spread of False Teaching - By Lara d'Entremont

The first summer in my house, my mom and I dug our hands into the small garden between the front and back steps. Weeds grew and jammed their way throughout the garden, choking out or hiding all of the vibrant flowers the previous owner had planted. We pulled up weeds and rearranged flowers under the hot sun while every type of bug and fly swarmed around us. We wiped the sweat from our brows and scrubbed dirt from under our fingernails after we finished. 

Once it was finished, I loved to walk out of my house and admire the colorful, delicate flowers blooming and thriving without hindrance. Yet after a few days, I noticed weeds poking through. At first, I didn’t think much of it; just pulled the few weeds out and moved. But they kept growing. They expanded. They fought to take over my garden again. 

The next summer eventually came around. With a hand on my growing, pregnant belly, I stared at my garden in disgust. All the literal blood and sweat my mother and I shed over this little garden appeared to be in vain; the garden was in the same state as it was the year before. In my lack of experience, I believed that once weeds were hauled out, I wouldn’t have to worry about them anymore. 

As you look around at the current state of the church, your heart may sink in a similar way. Despite your efforts preparing theologically rich and engaging small group Bible studies, you see your students turning to fluffier ones with incorrect doctrines mixed in. Despite how many blog posts you write warning about the trending false teachings in the church, still more people are reading the “theologians” and “teachers” who propagate those very doctrines. Despite the many conversations you’ve had with your friends, they still don’t understand why you’re concerned (they might even suggest you’re over-reacting). 

Are you tired? Are you exhausted? Are you at a loss for words? Are you weary? I know I am. Perhaps you’re not only exhausted but fed up with the circling conversations and the hateful replies you get. You’re crushed from being condemned for holding fast to the gospel. You’re tired of the eye-rolling and the chuckles that happen whenever you begin to tell someone the dangers of false doctrine. You just want to be spoken to kindly and taken seriously. 

Elijah felt the same grieved exhaustion. He felt so discouraged that he ran away, hid in a cave, and sunk into what some may call a suicidal depression (1 Kings 18–19). Jeremiah wanted to stop prophesying and wished he had never been born because of the persecution it brought on him (Jer. 20). The psalmist envied the wicked because they didn’t seem to have any troubles like the rest of mankind (Ps. 73). We’re not alone in our weariness, grief, and cynicism. 

But these men of God didn’t stay in that place, and we know we can’t either. How do we press on in the face of such exhaustion—of both heart and mind? We begin by considering the promises and character of our God as our Good Shepherd.

Only God Changes Hearts 

When one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Cor. 3:4–9 ESV, emphasis mine)

When we start to toil anxiously, flitting around like a flock of startled birds, it may mean we forgot who changes people’s hearts for the gospel. Perhaps some of your exhaustion and anxiety is because you’ve put all the burden on your own to-do list to make sure all your friends and church members hear and believe the truth. While it’s a righteous desire, if we lose sight of who does the work of calling and changing, it can become an exhausting work. We need to remember that God alone is sovereign over growth and change. He is the one who gathers the sheep and directs their hearts to follow him.

When Elijah was depressed and exhausted, God didn’t call him to get up and get back to it. He gave him food. He gave him sleep. And he spoke his Word to him. You’re just as much of a human as Elijah, and you have the same needs, and our Good Shepherd supplies our needs. We won’t be able to do any planting or watering if we’re malnourished. So take the time you need to recover—both physically and spiritually—and trust God with the results of your planting and watering as he gives opportunity. Then we can pray with our palms open and facing heaven.

God Sustains and Protects His People

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:37–40)

When Elijah brought his troubles to God, he said, “the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away,” (1 Kings 19:14). God replied, “I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (v. 18). 

Our work can feel lonely, like we’re among the few (or perhaps the only) seeing concerns within the evangelical world. It’s hard to watch people who went to Bible college with us, people who we grew up with in church, or even close friends reject historic Christianity. It grieves us. Like Elijah, we may complain to God that we’re the only one left. 

Yet both the Father and the Son have promised, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to never let their true sheep from their fold fall away. Not because the ones he’s chosen are strong and smart, but because his everlasting arm will never let them go; he protects them with his staff from the wolves who seek to devour them. We can trust his true sheep will be raised. God will always sustain his chosen people throughout all the world, and not one who truly believes in him will be lost.

God Will Be Glorified

In all things, God will be glorified. We may not be able to see how now, but he will be. Whether it’s in the righteousness of his people and sustaining them for eternal life (Ps. 73:23–26; 1 Pet. 4:7–11) or if it’s in the judgment of the wicked (Ezek. 28:20–24). The Shepherd will be glorified—we don’t need to fret and worry. Instead, we can continue on in our ordinary work of loving one another, teaching one another right doctrine, and warning against the false teachers in a sustainable, restful way. And when we lose heart and become discouraged (as all believers are prone to do), we remind ourselves of the gospel we likewise need daily and the promises of God.

When my kids get a little bigger, I will get down on my hands and knees again to dig the weeds out of my garden. It won’t be pleasant. I may not enjoy it much. But I trust God will cause the growth of beautiful flowers yet again. And he will be glorified in that too.