Needing Encouragement

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. Today I'm going to be looking at the subject of encouragement.

This is something that all believers need. So how do we do it? How do we receive it? I'd like to start out by looking at first Samuel 30 verses one through six.

This is that passage that talks about David, how he encouraged himself in the

Lord. First Samuel 31 through six, it says, now it happened when

David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day and that the Amalekites had invaded the

South and Ziklag. They attacked Ziklag and they burned it with fire and had taken captive the women and those who were there from small to great.

They did not kill anyone, but they carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city and there it was burned with fire and their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

And you can only imagine how David must have felt. Verse four, then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.

And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail, the widow of Nabal the

Carmelite had been taken captive. 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 daughters. But the Bible says David strengthened himself in the

Lord, his God. And the King James version says David encouraged himself in the

Lord. Okay. So what does that mean? If you keep reading, David then calls for the priest who brings the ephod so that David can inquire of the

Lord. So basically today to encourage ourselves in the Lord, we would go to church, we would read the

Bible and we would seek God in prayer. The word encourage means to make strong, to repair.

Now there might be that little voice in the back of your head that says, you know, what's the use? What's the use? It's not going to help.

But if you've ever been in that position where you felt down, yeah, you know, you should seek the

Lord. And if you start reading the Bible and start praying, then after a few minutes you realize that now this actually does help or those mornings where you just don't feel like going to church.

Once you're there, you're so glad that you went. So the word encourage means to make strong, to repair, right?

We are strengthening ourselves spiritually, but it's not us. We're seeking

God. He is doing it through his word, through prayer, through worship. So restoring our spiritual strength.

And here's the thing. Don't miss this. As a creature, we're made up of body, soul, and spirit.

So our physical condition and how we feel, it's not disconnected from our spiritual condition.

The point is, if your mind is in a bad place and if you are in a bad place spiritually, you can often feel that in your body.

Speaking of David, when he was at a low point in Psalm 32, before he confessed his sin, he wrote, when

I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groanings all the day long.

For day and night, your hand, that is God's hand, was heavy upon me,

David said. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. But then

I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said,

I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found.

Surely in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. And speaking of the

Lord, David said, you are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble.

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Now does that mean

David would never go through times of trouble or that we won't? No, far from it. We just read how

David faced many trials, but he had hope. And if we have placed our faith in the gospel, then we have hope.

Certainly, we have hope of that full and final deliverance when the Lord takes us to be with him in heaven.

But I think it's hopeful to know that even some of the greatest men and women of faith, at times they got down, they got discouraged.

We might even say they felt depressed at times. This is especially brought out in the

Psalms and the book of Ecclesiastes. As for the Psalms, though, there's great

Psalms of triumph, but also Psalms that expressed how the writer felt going through trials and tribulations.

So I think the point is, if you feel this way, and we all do from time to time, it's completely normal.

I think of the prophet Elijah, who experienced a great victory on Mount Carmel in 1

Kings 18. But then the next thing you read in 1 Kings 19, he's in a cave hiding from Jezebel and he feels like he's the only one left who still loves the

Lord and is faithful. Was that true? No. The Lord told him, I have reserved 7 ,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

Elijah then departs. That's when he meets his protege, Elisha, who did even greater works than him.

So if we would just wait on the Lord and just seek God, we can receive that restoration, that spiritual strength, that encouragement that we need.

And certainly we need to deal with those issues. If there's something we know we need to deal with, God's laying it on our heart.

We need to confess our sin. We read that in Psalm 32. But seeking God, that is how we encourage ourselves.

But what about encouraging others? Because that's typically what you think of when you hear about encouragement.

We think of encouraging other people. Well, the Bible says in Acts 4 .36, there's this man named

Barnabas, scripture says that his name was interpreted, son of encouragement.

So if you've ever heard people say that we need more men in the church like Barnabas, well that's what they're saying.

We need more people in the Christian church who will come alongside someone and help them and encourage them.

This is the idea that believers are to bear one another's burdens. We are to lift each other up.

Iron sharpens iron. So if you see, what are some ways you can do that? If you see that someone has a spiritual gift, encourage them to exercise it.

Maybe give them an opportunity. Notice what people are doing for the Lord and tell them you appreciate them.

If a person is growing in their faith, let them know you noticed. Thank people for what they do.

If someone is sick, give them a call. If someone is in the hospital or in the nursing home, go and visit them.

If someone has a need, fulfill that need. Or just give a kind word to someone.

You know, sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest difference. The Bible says in Proverbs 16 verse 24, pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

If you want to encourage your pastor, be in church on Sunday. If you want to encourage a missionary, write them a letter.

Consider giving them a financial gift. If you want to encourage a Sunday school teacher, let them know that you care and you really are thankful all the time and effort they put into teaching the children.

There's so many things that we can do. Now, I think some people have the idea that in order to be a real encouragement, you just have to be positive 100 % of the time and always smiling and, well,

I mean, that's great, but it's just not realistic. And especially with some of the things that we face as Christians fighting spiritual warfare and some of the things we talk about on this podcast, you know, you can encourage fellow believers simply by taking a stand for what is right.

I think that's how I'm most encouraged these days. When I see someone standing and fighting for truth, taking a stand, that encourages me greatly.

And just going back to 1 Samuel 30, after David encouraged himself in the

Lord, you know what he did next? He rested, he had something to eat, and then he went off and fought another battle.

He defeated the enemy and he rescued those who had been taken captive. In the

Old Testament, they fought, what, physical battles. In the New Testament, we fight spiritual battles.

So I think the lesson is, as we live out the Christian faith, we're going to have those ups and downs, but what's important is that we seek the

Lord and surround ourselves with people who will do likewise. And even if we face a few setbacks, which we will, we live to fight another day.

So in conclusion, I hope this was an encouragement to you. Keep fighting the good fight of faith.

And I'll close with this encouraging verse from Isaiah 40, verse 31. It says,

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. My name's