Encourage Yourself!

“And 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 for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD
his God.” 1 Samuel 30:6 KJV

In the above scripture, David is incredibly distressed. He and his army return home to find that their wives, children and animals have been taken, their homes have been burned to the ground - and now his army (600 men) are discussing amongst themselves killing David. Oh the pressure!

So what does David do? He can’t get a comforting word from his wife because she’s been taken. He can’t go home and get into bed and pull the covers over his head, because his home has been burned up. And he can’t talk to his “support system” (his army) because they’re now a part of the problem and want him dead. So, who’s left? It’s now just him and GOD!

Since we walk around with ourselves 24/7 — we would do ourselves a great justice if we could just learn to encourage ourselves!

How do you do that? First of all, you have to have the Word of God already in you, or be in the process of constantly building it up. It’s just like putting money into a bank account - you can withdraw it when you need it. BUT! Something needs to be in there first. When you have the Word of God in you, and distressing times come, and your spouse or prayer partner is in a meeting, your pastor is traveling and can’t talk to you and it seems as if God has forgotten your request — ENCOURAGE YOURSELF! Praise the Lord through your pains and disappointments. Pray His Word back to Him - and see what happens!

At the end of last year, the LORD had blessed me with the absolute home of my dreams! A luxury townhouse, actually, it was the model home for a brand new development - with ALL OF THE BELLS & WHISTLES already in it! Just eight days after closing on my new (fabulous) house, through no fault of my own — I was now unemployed. Eight days later.

Okay, so now in the worst recession I’ve ever known or heard of happening in my life time - I now had to compete with the millions of other unemployed people for a new job. Armed with my newly updated resume with all of my experiences, education and accomplishments listed on it, I began to apply for a countless number of jobs - all of which I was qualified for. Yet, I was receiving more rejection letters and emails than I was job interviews and offers. My family and support system were always there to keep me encouraged; but, that wasn’t enough. This very frustrating season went on for nearly six months, and there were so many times when I just wanted to be by myself and praise the LORD.

After receiving each rejection letter or email, I’d tweet and blog about things like;

“Count it ALL joy — in alllllll that you’re going through!”

“The LORD will not let me down.”

“But GOD is faithful!”

“The LORD will perfect that which concerns me!”

“When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard AGAINST him!”

“All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes.” Job 14:14

“I KNOW God is working, so I SMILE!” ~ Kirk Franklin

And while many people were encouraged by my posts (thank God!), they had no idea what I was going through. I was encouraging myself!

While under great stress and disappointment, I’d pray things to God like this;

“Lord, you are faithful and just to perform Your Word! And You KEEP Your promises to a 1,000 generations, and you aren’t going to stop with me!”

“Lord, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. It doesn’t matter what it seems like, it doesn’t even matter what it sounds like — You are MORE THAN WORTHY TO BE PRAISED!”

I’d say things like, “Lord, it’s okay that I didn’t get that job, I KNOW You have something so much better in store for me!”

I’d walk around my home singing, “God will make a way, where there seems to be NO WAY. He works in ways I cannot see, GOD will make a way for me!”

David encouraged himself in the Lord and God gave him the victory and RESTORED everything that he had lost (1 Samuel 30) — and He did the same for ME — and He’ll do the same thing for YOU!

You don’t have to wait for someone to call you back or to come and visit you, as the song says, “Learn to speak victory during the test!”

Encourage YOURSELF in the LORD!