How to Find Encouragement in the Lord

 

In I Samuel 30: 1 – 6, we read of where David was forced to face some deep hurt on his own. His city had been attacked by the Amalakites and they had taken all of the women and children captives. They had also set the city on fire. 

David’s hurt and pain ran deep.  The agony that each man experienced was intense. It was at this precise moment that David’s friends turned their backs upon him and began the talk of killing David. They had unequivocally placed complete blame on David for this misfortune. David was now forced to hurt alone.  Friends of a lifetime now wanted him dead. 

David was so low in spirit that he had reached rock bottom. Have you been there? Can you relate? Is it possible that you are currently living in a virtual city of discouragement? If so, then you must  know the pain of abandonment during a time when you needed a friend the most.

Now that we have admitted living in defeat, now is the time to rent a truck to move you out of this dark, dismal city, and begin to find your encouragement from God.

Finding Encouragement from the Lord 

The question remains, how can you begin the process of encouraging  yourself in the Lord? The antidote for discouragement is found in both reflecting and redirecting your thoughts. 

1.  Remember, you still have the Presence of God. Hebrews 13:8 reminds us what God has promised, “I will NEVER leave nor forsake you”.  You are not alone!  God has not abandoned you, all is not lost!  Matthew 28:20 also reminds us that, “God is with us always, even until the end of the world.”

2.  Reflect upon the Power of God. Matthew 19:26 says, “But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”

Reflect upon the parting of the Red Sea; reflect upon Daniel in the lion’s den; reflect upon the power of God’s spoken word in creation; reflect upon the three Hebrew Children in the firery furnace. Did not God stand with each one and deliver them from their issues?

An Antidote to Doubt and Anxiety

I know exactly what your troubled heart is thinking about now. It is questioning your faith. I know what God has done for others, but will God really help me? Will God really act on my behalf? Am I really that important and do I carry any real significance with God.  Yes, 10,000 times yes.

Here is the antidote for your anxiety. I have no magic dust to sprinkle over your head to make you feel better. There are some things which you need to do to help yourself.

Reflect upon and then  Record the “specific” ways in which God has answered “your” prayers over the years. And since God has worked in your life in the past, why should you doubt that He will now? 

James 1:6 -8 says, “But let him ask in faith, nothering wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.   For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

I Peter 5:7 says: “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.” God does in fact care for you very much.  He is aware of what you have been going through.  God knows that you feel all alone and abandoned by your friends. God will see you through the storms of life that you are currently facing and your Heavenly Father has made a promise to you in Job 23:10:  “But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

If I could leave you with a thought: What God has done for You and others in the past,  your Heavenly Father can most certainly do for you today as well!