Encouraging yourself

I love words. I don’t think in pictures and so am terrible at Pictionary. I think in words. And I love etymology or the origin and history of words. I’ve been thinking about the word ENCOURAGE. It means “to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope: to hearten.” It is obviously from the word courage, which is from Middle English corage, via Old French, cuer and Latin cor — heart. Cor or heart is a common metaphor for inner strength (just for fun - it seems to have replaced the Old English word ellen, which also meant "zeal, strength."). To have courage is to have heart; to be encouraged is to have your heart strengthened; to be discouraged is to lose heart. Here is a picture (ha!): Courage is standing straight, your lungs full of air, braced for whatever is ahead of you; Encourage is the taking in of the air, straightening yourself; Discourage is letting the air out and dropping the head, no longer ready or prepared.

Well, the other night, I was discouraged. Just like I described it above. Went to work discouraged. And while there I thought about David.

1Samuel 30:3-4  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.  Then David and the people that [were] with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

David, in order to keep away from Saul, had joined himself to the Philistines. He had offered to fight in one of their wars and been turned down. And this is what they found when they returned home. They lost everything. How did his men respond to this?

1 Samuel 30:6 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.

He is in a real tight spot! Not only has he lost everything as well as them, but they want to kill him! How did he respond to this? He was distressed and grieved, but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. When everything around him was falling apart, his loss of his goods, his loss of his family, and now the threat of death, he took a deep breath, stood up straight and went forward.

It’s nice when we are down to have someone come alongside and encourage us. David had no one. All the people standing next to him wanted to throw stones at him. So he had to encourage himself. We are in a good spot spiritually when we can encourage ourselves in the Lord. So, how do we do that?

As I thought about that I thought of what we do when we encourage someone else. How do we do that? I thought of three things we can do:

First, our Presence. Sometimes when someone is going through a trial or tribulation it is good just to have someone there. Consider Job 2:11-13: Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz…and Bildad…and Zophar…for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him….So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
This is one of the blessings of visiting the sick, those in prison, the struggling and the wayward: just being there encourages them.

Second, reminding them of the Promises of God. Not simply mindless cliches, but recalling what God says about where they are, why they are there, and what God says he will do for them.

Third, Prayer. Praying for strength, grace and mercy, and claiming the promises of God.

What a blessing to have someone encourage you when you are in a trial or tribulation, when you are distressed, depressed or even defeated! What a greater blessing to be that person. But David had nobody. Apparently, not even the priest. So he encouraged himself in the Lord. And that could only be by focusing his thoughts on the Lord, reminding himself of God’s call on his life, remembering the promises God had given him, then praying himself and calling on God to hear and to help; taking in a deep breath, standing tall and choosing to believe God and go forward.

OK. So what happened? You really should read the whole chapter but to cut to the chase: v 18-19 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. 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.

Now back to me. I am not David. We could debate whether David was slightly compromised by dwelling among the Philistines, but since there is no word of reproach from the Lord, I will not even go there. He was waiting on God for the fulfillment of the promise and this happened. I’m in a different boat. But can I still encourage myself in the Lord? Just reading what I wrote about how he went about encouraging himself encouraged me!

I've got to get to the place where it can be said of me, Jeff was greatly distressed but he encouraged himself in the Lord. Amen