When you're having a problem or a struggle, doesn't it help to know others have faced the same situations? David, Elijah, and Hannah were discouraged. Here are some other discouraged people in the Bible.

4. Naomi

Naomi was discouraged because of financial difficulties and terrible loss. Her husband and two sons had both died, and she was left penniless and homeless. "Don't call me Naomi," she told her friends. "Call me Mara (meaning bitter), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter…” (Ruth 1:20-21). It's easy enough to understand her discouragement. Financial difficulties cause a great deal of discouragement for many of us.

5. Mary and Martha

Mary and Martha were discouraged because they lost someone they loved, and they had really expected Jesus to save him. After all, Jesus had been healing all kinds of other people; surely, he would come and save his beloved friend, Lazarus, they reasoned. And when he didn't, they were very discouraged; Jesus had disappointed them. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21).

Have you ever set an agenda out for the Lord, expecting him to work on your timetable, and then been disappointed when he didn't come through? That can be discouraging.

6. Peter

Peter was discouraged because of his own failure. After he denied the Lord three times, Peter went out and wept bitterly, we are told. I imagine he felt he had blown it for good, and he must have been terribly discouraged with himself. How could he deny the Lord, the one he promised never to deny?

When I look at myself and see how inadequate I am, how often I fail, how I go back and do the same things over and over I know I shouldn't do, I get very discouraged. In fact, that discourages me probably more than anything else, how about you?

7. Jesus

Even Jesus fought discouragement when his friends failed him; when he was misunderstood; when he tried to help, and his help was refused. That really hurts when you have totally good motives, and yet people don't approve or understand or support you. In fact, they may reject you, as they did Jesus. Easy to be discouraged then.

Well, it is encouraging to see even these great people of God went through times of discouragement. But now we want to know how they learned to defeat it.