1 Samuel 30:6
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.
When everyone is against you, even the people you have surrounded yourself with, there is no better place to receive encouragement than from The Lord your God.
Things go wrong and sometimes people need someone to blame, to hold accountable. These are the times we need to seek God's face and His presence. We run to The Father and He wraps His wings of mercy around us, sheltering us from the storms of criticisms, vitriolic language and persecutions.
At times, it may feel as if we have fallen into some deep pit, and we cry out to God; whereupon He reaches down and picks us up, holding us in His hands; holding us upright and strengthening us with Himself and His Word and His Spirit. Many are the days when a body feels as if it has fallen into a never ending abyss; God reaches way, way down and lays hold of us, cradling us in the palm of His hand. There is nowhere we go that God cannot reach us, when we cry out to Him.
Crying out to God is necessary to activate God's hand and Word in our lives and our hearts. Salvation is made in us when we believe and confess (out loud) that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must open up our hearts and speak aloud The Word of God to God in our hearing, where possible. I am aware that some folks cannot speak, or speak well, nor can some hear with their ears. But we can read The Word and The Holy Spirit will apply it to our open, listening hearts.
What is another way we encourage ourselves in our Lord? Prayer. Prayer with our God is the most vital form of communication we have. He is, after all, our heavenly Father and desires to hear from His children daily. He wants to meet our needs and grant us the desires of our hearts. He longs to spend quality, family time with us. We need to embrace Him and all that He has for us, is for us.
We encourage ourselves in The Lord, when we sing songs that glorify God; songs that lift up His Name; hymns and psalms that speak Scripture into us when we sing or read them. Music is vital to me. Ever since I got baptized in The Spirit during a revival, I cannot help but sing: even in my frail, sometimes failing voice, I will sing as long as I have breath to sing.
We encourage ourselves in The Lord when we encourage each other in The Lord. In 1 Samuel 23:16, Jonathan came to David and encouraged him in God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul encourages the church in Thessalonica, writing that they are to encourage each other and build each other up, edifying one another in The Lord.
To be encouraged in The Lord is to be strengthened and made firm/steadfast in The Lord. It is to hear The Word via The Spirit and set our faces like stone, immovable in our faith, unwavering in our belief. We will be called haters, stubborn, intolerable. And we will be hated. We will be, and currently around the world some of us are, beaten, tortured, jailed, killed. Our children may be taken from us or they may turn us in to the authorities. Families are divided and sometimes one's own family will do the killing. This Christian life is a tough life, but so worth the journey.
Psalm 18:2
The LORD is My Rock, My Fortress, and My Deliverer. My God is My Rock, in Whom I take Refuge, My Shield, and The Horn of My Salvation, My Stronghold.
Jude 1:20, 21
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in The Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.
