Discouragement is the common cold of the emotions. Eventually it affects everybody. Elijah—God’s iron man of the Old Testament—became so discouraged that he sat down under a tree and asked to die. Jesus himself often “sighed deeply within his spirit” (Mark 8:12).
The apostle Paul said that when he went to Asia he was so hard pressed and drained that he “despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8). The word despair means “to be at utter loss.” The situation with Paul was so hopeless that he saw no way out but death.