The devil decided to have a garage sale. On the day of sale, his tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price. There were a treacherous lot of implements: hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, lust, lying, pride, and so on.

Set apart from the rest was a harmless-looking tool. It was quite worn and yet priced very high.

“What is the name of this tool?” asked one of the customers, pointing to it.

“That is discouragement,” Satan replied.

“Why have you priced it so high?”

“Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open and get inside a man’s heart with that, even when I cannot get near him with the other tools. It is badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since so few people know it belongs to me.”

The devil’s price for discouragement was high because it is still his favorite tool, and he is still using it on God’s people.