How to Encourage Yourself in the Lord

Have you ever felt discouraged? Perhaps you are familiar with feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, with no idea what to do or how you will make it through a particular situation. I am so thankful that the Bible addresses the whole scope of human emotion!

1 Samuel 30 tells of a time when David, still exiled from his homeland due to the jealous persecutions of King Saul, came home from a battle only to find his city destroyed and his family (and the families of all his men) taken captive. Not only this, but his men began to talk amongst themselves, blaming David for the tragedy. In grief and rage, they were seriously considering stoning him to death.

So there he was, in the midst of profound loss, facing the peril of an angry army—do you think David might have had cause to be just a little discouraged?

1 Samuel 30:6 tells us that David was “distressed,” a Hebrew word that has the sense of being pressed or confined. And yet, notice what he does next:

“but David encouraged himself in the Lord His God.”

In the face of pressure like you and I will probably never experience, David didn’t panic, he didn’t become bitter or let despondency take over. Instead, he encouraged himself—not in his own ability to handle the situation, but in the Lord.

And how did David encourage himself in the Lord? The next verse gives us a clue:

“And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue them? And he answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”

In David’s time, the way to take a matter to God to find out His will was through the high priest and the ephod. God hasn’t given us much detail on how this worked, which presumably means it’s a rabbit trail we don’t need to go down. But while the process looked different for David than it does for us, the principle is still the same. Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us,

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

As David did, you and I today still take the sources of our discouragement to God via a high priest: but in our case, the High Priest is God Himself, who, as Romans 8:34 tells us,

“It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

When we are discouraged, one part of encouraging ourselves in the Lord is to take our problems to God in prayer. But there are three more things we must do: We must be attentive to the Holy Spirit’s reply, believe it, and obey.

The very next verse in this episode in the life of David begins with the words,

“So David went”

It’s really that simple, although in practice it is not at all easy. But if you find yourself discouraged today, remember that God is there: talk to Him about what is discouraging you, take time to attend to what the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to you (this often means spending time quietly before God, reading His Word,) and then act in obedience to His guidance. Instead of letting discouragement overwhelm you, decide to do as David and encourage yourself in the Lord!

“The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:18