It's hard to judge which fuel better expands the combustion of doubt and spiritual discouragement.  On one hand people of faith become discouraged when they pray and serve and see little results. But the some thing worse than seeing no results is watching God work in mighty ways only to be disappointed when people and movements slow  or regress in their growth. The prophet Jeremiah began his prophecy in the year 626 BCE. Josiah was king of Judah. This was a time of huge revival for Israel, spiritual life started to spring through the nation. - Josiah led the people to repentance seeking the Lord after decades of idolatrous practices. Josiah began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed pagan shrines.

Jeremiah prophecies and has a ministry of revival. And this interest in proper worship was answered by conflict from the outside. Through a series of international struggles - Babylon led by Nebuchadnezer took over Judah. By 605 BCE Judah was captured (Dan 1.1-3) By 586 BCE (toward the end of Jeremiah's ministry) Nebuchadnezzar came and decimated Jerusalem. He took captive people and killed the rulers.

Being a representative of Jesus is tough. It occurred to me (in a very Psa 73 sense) that there is little negative correlation between suffering and spiritual success.  I've been praying for the Welte Family, or for Cal and Phyllis Dunnon, or any number of people who are working for revival and victory and being discouraged as they are calling God's people back to Him.  In Judah the stage was set for revival, God's man was King, God's prophet was in place. But God chose to sent international conflict at that very moment in redemptive history. I wonder why God didn't send punishment when... i donno - when there was a bad king and false prophets.  But I wonder if he works the same way today. I'm going to be reading through Jeremiah along with Tremper Longman's commentary on Jeremiah.  I'm hoping to see how to depend on God when ministry is going badly, for all the wrong reasons.