Encourage Yourself in the Lord
“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. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). David had just come back, with his men, to Ziklag, the place where they lived only to find that the enemy had come and destroyed their village and taken their families in captivity. It certainly wasn’t a pretty picture by any means.
David could have done a lot of things at this point in his time, but he chose to do the one thing he knew would truly help him. He encouraged himself in the Lord. When the way looks pretty bleak; when the dark clouds are hanging low; when the storm is on; when the burdens seem more than a person can bear; when the problems are bigger than every imagined; when the situation is chaotic and upside down, we could end up doing a lot of things which would only compound the condition. But there is one thing we can do. We can turn to the Lord. We can realize that He hasn’t left us alone. We can realize that He is able to give us the strength and the stamina and the heart to keep going on in spite of everything negative.
We can encourage ourselves in the Lord knowing that He hasn’t turned a deaf ear. He hasn’t turned His face away from us. He may allow things to happen but through it all we can know that His grace is sufficient and His arm is strong and He will bring us out on the other side!