Encourage Yourself In The Lord

Encourage Yourself In The Lord

Introduction

1Samuel.30:1-6. “And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire.”

2: “And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.”

3: “So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.”

4: “Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.”

5: “And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.”

6: “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”

7: “And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.”

8: “And David enquired at the LORD, saying, shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And He answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”

“Anyone can give up; it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

One of the greatest challenges and somewhat sad reality of how we choose to live our lives is the fact that to a disproportionate degree we are products of how other people view us and feel about us.

This has then led to a rise of depression, anxiety and in some extreme cases suicide, why? Because many of us cannot cope when other people either talk about us negatively or do not value us as a person.

We all want someone to care about us and like us because we find value and purpose in ourselves when those who live in our context validate our existence.

We feel good when others tell us “Oh you will make a real good singer,” even when they cannot not sing a note to save their own life.

We feel good when others tell us “Oh you are a really great preacher,” even though real truth is they know nothing about preaching and the last time they picked up their bible was in two thousand and never.

We feel good when others tell us we dress smart and we should take up modeling while they never match and the last time they polished their shoes was Christmas 07.

We feel good when others tell us your definitely the one for me because you are all that with a bag of chips, chocolate chip cookies and a diet sprite, however the real issue is not so much are you the one for them but are they the one for you?

And so we function and make decisions and based upon the perceptions of others which have not only caused great heartache and needless stress but it is also a recipe for living a life that can become futile.

For if you did not know then it is about time you woke up and realized people will tell you one thing today and then something else tomorrow and the most disturbing thing is I do not care how much we think we know someone the truth is we don’t.

Because sooner or later we all face something or some challenge in this life and when we turn around to find someone we thought cared to stand by us or even just give us a word to encourage us our world comes crashing down around us because we now realize we have no one and we are alone.

And this is the question that pervades our lives within the juncture between life and death, what do we do when we have no one to stand with us or encourage us when we are distressed?

Because if we cannot answer that then many of us will find ourselves between a rock and a hard place or their maybe a few of us who are there right now and we are struggling because the people we thought had our back really never had us at all.

That’s why in these critical moments of this world’s history we have to learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord for not only is the best friend we can ever have but when everyone else forsakes us and lets us down I want to testify we can trust Him.