Discouragement--a tool to block us from following God's guidance

 Discernment:  What spirit is guiding me—God’s spirit or an evil spirit? St. Ignatius’s experience of the spiritual life is that early in one’s spiritual journey “the evil spirit often tempts us to discouragement”(Discernment of Spirits by Warren Sazama, SJ, National Religious Vocation Conference, Chicago, IL 60615, p. 14).  In this stage a person is likely to say with Gideon when God called Him to a special task: I’m not capable of doing that; “my clan is the weakest in Manassah and I am the least important of my father’s family” (Judges 6:15) or with Moses: “Who am I go to Pharaoh?....I am slow and hesitant of speech…(Exodus 3:11 and 4: 10).  The evil spirit raises questions, puts doubts in our minds, tries to convince us that it will never work, instilling anxiety and fear. Every obstacle imaginable is suggested to  discourage us from walking the way of Christ, of taking up the cross, of living the Gospel life.  In exasperation, we are likely to complain: “Why try. I’ll fail anyway. I’ll never be a saint. That’s for priests and nuns. Forget it.”  Those thoughts are not from the spirit self or God-self but from an opposing force. Source: Discernment of Spirits by Warren Sazama, SJ, National Religious Vocation Conference, Chicago, IL 60615, p. 11.