David encouraged himself in the Lord his God
1st Samuel 30:1-6
You don’t smile like you used to.
You don’t love like you used to.
You don’t get happy like you used to.
You don’t feel the Spirit like you used to.
You don’t interact with others like you used to.
You don’t hug like you used to.
You don’t appreciate people like you used to.
You don’t enjoy life like you used to.
We all need encouragement from time to time. All of us at sometime or other face a crisis when everything seems to fall apart. There are times of discouragement, when things go wrong even when we are trying to do right.
Daved was Hated and Hunted For 8 – 9 years, Saul considered David his bitter enemy. He hated him. He hunted him. David fled to escape Saul’s jealous wrath. As the young giant-killer’s life became more and more like the adventures of The Fugitive, he gathered around him a band of rag-tag warriors who were the off-scouring of Israel. The Bible describes them as, “Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented” (1 Samuel 22:2). What a group.
Eventually David and his new “army” fled across Israel’s border into Philistia, hoping to find safety among the Philistines. They thought Saul would never look for them there.
Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then, David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters (1 Samuel 30:1–6).
As the initial wave of grief subsided, David’s men began to point their fingers at him. They believed if it hadn’t been for David, they would not be going through this experience. They talked of stoning and killing him.
All human support systems had vanished.
I can’t imagine anything more stressful, more frightening, and more discouraging than this moment in David’s life.
Those who were nearest to him had turned against him. David was left alone to experience his grief and to wrestle with the questions that surely must have filled his mind.
Before we go on and talk about Discouragement and Encouragement, there are a couple of things we need to understand about discouragement.
1.First, discouragement does not come from the Lord, it comes from our adversary the devil. That is why David could encourage himself in the Lord, because the Lord was the source of his solution, not the source of his problem.
2.Second, discouragement is an indication that we are walking by sight, not by faith. Paul said, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), and that was the source of his stability and strength.
3.Third, Put worship before warfare.
4.Forth, We may not be able to change the problem, but we can allow God to change us
KJV 1 Sam 30:6
David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
NIV 1 Sam 30:6
But David found strength in the Lord his God.
David’s Secret
1st Step Get Alone with God
In his moment of distress, in the heat of discouragement, David turned to the one true God, his God, for encouragement.
There was nowhere else to go.
Life had reduced his options to one.
Sooner or later, life does that to all of us.
David’s aloneness was his first step toward wholeness. There can be great healing in solitude.
But let’s be honest. Silence and solitude don’t seem to have a place in today’s world.
We live in a noisy, busy world
We have become a people with an aversion to quiet and an uneasiness with being alone.
Jim Elliott, the martyred missionary, once wrote in his journal: “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, and crowds. Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”
It’s not difficult to find examples in the Bible of people who, because of isolation, needed encouragement.
God put Moses on the back side of a desert for forty years before He sent him to lead the exodus.
God withdrew Elijah to a cave in Mount Horeb so that he could hear the still, small voice of God.
Jesus, too, often withdrew to the seashore or the mountains to be alone with the Father.
There is ministry in solitude—to be alone, to be quiet, so you can talk to God and God can talk to you.
David knew that. His psalms show us that he understood the importance of getting alone with God, whether it be in a cave or on a mountainside.
1.If a man considers his time to be so valuable that he cannot find time to keep quiet and be alone, that man will eventually be of no value to anyone. To spend all of one’s time with people, is to soon have nothing to give to any of them.
2.Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, had nineteen children. She was committed to solitude. In the middle of her busy day, she would pull her apron up over her head and have her quiet time. When the apron went up, the children knew mom was praying and reading her Bible and they left her alone.
There are times when the only way to find the encouragement we need is to get alone.
2nd Step Remember Scripture
Do you remember the movie: Honey I shrunk the kids?
Might we sometimes say: HONEY I JUST SHRUNK GOD! or HONEY, I SHRUNK HIS WORD!
David was well acquainted with the Old Testament and often turned to it for help and encouragement. It was David who wrote these words about the Scriptures as he knew them:
1.I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4).
2.God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling (Psalm 46:1–3).
3.Ps 121:1-2 NIV
I lift up my eyes to the hills — where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
4.Phil 4:4-9 NIV
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
3rd Step - Worship with Song
David also used song to lift his spirit during the discouraging times of life. He was a great musician and poet; his Psalms are actually praise hymns to God. Yet he was by no means alone in his use of song to counteract discouragement.
Habakkuk prophesied during a period of history when Israel was quite wicked.
Habakkuk asked God to judge the sin of His people and God obliged. But the prophet was astonished that God chose the Chaldeans to inflict this judgment. The Chaldeans (or Babylonians) were much more wicked than the Israelites. Habakkuk couldn’t understand why God would use a nation more evil than Israel to chasten His people. At the end of the brief book that bears his name, Habakkuk puts the intense conflict aside and worships his God in song. Some scholars think Habakkuk was a Levite responsible for leading the temple choir. Listen to his song of worship to a sovereign God.
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17–18).
4th step - We must come to God in humbleness and take the unpleasant truth.
David was greatly distressed, for he had been acting without consulting his God
Perhaps some of you are in distress in the same way: you have chosen your own path, and now you are caught in the tangled bushes which tear your flesh. You have carved for yourselves, and you have cut your own fingers; you have obtained your heart’s desire, and while the meat is yet in your mouth a curse has come with it. You say you "did it for the best;" ay, but it has turned out to be for the worst.
We must come to God in humbleness and take our medicine.
5th step - Remember you have been forgiven.
Rom 4:7
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Ps 103:12
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
CONCLUSION
Let’s learn from one experienced in dealing with problems
1.In times of trouble, look to the Lord for your strength!
2.Trust in the Lord, and be steadfast in praising Him and praying to Him
3.Don’t forsake Him, nor forsake the assembly of the saints in which we draw near to Him
Let what David said of himself be true of us as well:
"My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me." (Ps 63:8)
Remember that those who trust in God will find strength, deliverance, and true happiness!
Do you trust in the Lord? Or in your own strength? Let the Lord be your deliverance!
