Encourage Yourself!

Sometimes your environment is not too encouraging. Negative people and pressures in your life can drag you down. When everything seems to be sinking you can “encourage yourself in the Lord” and buoy yourself up. God is always with you and will raise you up when you acknowledge His presence. You can read of how David “encouraged himself in the Lord” when all seemed lost.

1 Sam 30:3-6

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.
KJV

The situation was grave. BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD. Then David prayed. Sometimes you have to encourage yourself before you can even pray.

1 Sam 30:8
8 And David inquired 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.
KJV

So after returning from one battle they went out again grieved and fatigued. The journey was so rigorous that 200 of David’s 600 men were so faint that they couldn’t even make it to the next battle. After all this when the finally reached the enemy they fought from twilight to the evening of the next day.

1 Sam 30:17-19

17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.

18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.

19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.
KJV

If David had not “encouraged himself in the Lord” no one else would have and the story would have a very sad ending for him and his men. Even when you do lift yourself up and pray and obey - then you still have to endure the journey and complete the battle. You can’t give up and you can’t stop encouraging yourself. If you want to be a leader and succeed-er you will have to learn to “encourage yourself in the Lord.” Pray, obey and endure to the end. If you do this you will win the war and spoil the enemies party. You might not be able to pick yourself up by your boot strings but if you grab onto God and get a hold of His Word then He will lift you up and help you stand when everyone else is going down. Lift up your head for He is raised up and you are raised up with Him!

Eph 2:4-7
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
NIV

Eph 2:6
6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
MES

Eph 1:21-23
21 FAR ABOVE all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
NKJV