How to Encourage Yourself in the Lord

Learning how to encourage yourself in God is a very important life skill because one day you may find yourself facing tough challenges and having no one in your corner to support you. It is for those times that you must therefore learn how to encourage yourself in the Lord like David.  

David found himself in a very bad situation one day when he and his men returned to their homes in Ziklag and found their houses burnt by the Amalekites. (1 Samuel 30:1)  

These Amalekites had also kidnapped the wives and children of David and his men. (1 Samuel 30:2)  

In addition to dealing with this double tragedy, David's own men now started speaking of stoning him. (1 Samuel 30:6)

Thus David was dealing with the challenges of having his home destroyed, his family members kidnapped and his friends talking about killing him.

In addition to this, David could not live in his home country because King Saul was trying to kill him because of jealousy.  

Thus so many things were going so wrong in David's life that he could have decided to give up. However, David did not give up on life or on God. Instead, David encouraged himself in the Lord. (1 Samuel 30:6)

How to Encourage Yourself in the Lord

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are dealing with multiple problems  and the people you thought you could depend on are now talking about you in a negative way, emulate David and encourage yourself in the Lord by doing the following:

1. Pray for Strength

Pray and ask God to help you solve the problems you are currently facing. 

Click here to read How to Pray for your Stressful Situation

Then pray and ask God to strengthen you in the inner person as you wait for solutions to your problems. 
For example you can pray, Heavenly Father I ask You in the name of Jesus to help me so that I can Be strong in You Lord and in the power of Your might. (Ephesians 6:10)

Heavenly Father, you are a God Who gives power to the weak and I therefore ask You in the name of Jesus to increase my strength. (Isaiah 40:29)

Heavenly Father I ask You in the name of Jesus to strenghten me and to be with me so that I can run against this troop and jump over this wall. (Psalm 18:29)

Heavenly  Father I ask You in the name of Jesus to arm me with strength for this battle (Psalm 18:39) and perfect my way. (Psalm 18:32)

2. Look at Your Past

Looks at your past and remind yourself of the number of times God has delivered you from other problems even if they were different from the ones you are currently facing.

Then, tell yourself that God can still deliver you from your current problems because He is still the same great God.

We can see a great example of this from David when he faced the challenge of fighting Goliath because he declared, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." (1 Samuel 17:37) 

Therefore, declare that the God Who helped you deal with problems in your past will also help you deal with the problems in your present.

Click here to read The Importance of Keeping a Book of Blessings

3. Look at Your Present

Look at your present life situation and remind yourself of the purpose of God for your current life and then decide to fulfill it.

Emulate David who did this for the Bible says he Served the purpose of God for His generation. (Acts 13:36)

So if your current Life Purpose is to train up your children in the ways of God as you wait for your God appointed time to become the international worship leader that many people have prophesied about your life, rededicate yourself to fulfilling that purpose even if the midst of your current problems. 

To fulfill your Life Purpose effectively without being discouraged by your present problems, you have to remove the focus of your mind from your current problems and refocus it on what God expects you to do in this current season of your life.

Click here to read How to Know and Fulfill Your Life Purpose

4. Look at Your Future

Look at your future and remind yourself of the things that God has told you He will do in your life. 

In David's situation, he could have reminded himself that he was anointed to be king of Israel by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13) and so he was destined to become the King of Israel and not to die as a fugitive in a foreign land. 

Therefore remind yourself of what God has told you about His plans for your future life. Then, let His Words strengthen you since they must come to pass. 

If you do not have a specific Word from the Lord about your life, remind yourself of His promises in the Bible because they are for everyone. 

Promises of God that you can meditate on to strengthen yourself in the Lord and enable you to look forward to your future regardless of what is going on in your present include:
I know the thoughts I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not evil, thoughts to give you a future and hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) 

God will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above and not beneath. (Deuteronomy 28:13)

Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)