David Encouraged Himself In The Lord His God

I'll be honest with you...sometimes it seems absolutely impossible to love the Lord when life offers sour lemons.

But, we don't have to stay in a mode of dissatisfaction. There is an escape, ...if we take it.

Neither you nor I know anyone living totally free of troubles. Their problems may not be visible to us, and they may deceivingly grin to hide it, but difficulties and challenges are most assuredly knocking on their doors at any given moment.

King David is known as "a man after God's own heart". Even before his sin with Bathsheba he had crossed numerous paths of danger and hardships. He succeeded in protecting his sheep from a lion and a bear. This much we know. What remains a mystery is how much effort and cunning it took to win those two battles. We are ignorant of other occasions in which he wrestled with enemies of his flock. It is even possible that some of the sheep were injured or killed before David prevailed. He may have even been injured. All we are aware of is what David tells us. He tells the good stuff.

David's choice of focusing on the blessings of life (revealed in many of the Psalms) are examples of what we should do when feeling defeated. When distraught with the onslaught of troubles...David encouraged himself in the Lord his God" (I Samuel 30:1-6).

Yes, when going through fiery trials it is so easy to blame God. David could have done that. Anybody can do that! Many people have done it so often, never looking back to see what God was doing all along.

If David had blamed God he would have missed out on "Act 2, scene 3", where the hearts of the people of Judah and Israel turn to him and David becomes King.  Because his focus was upon God, not self, he didn't miss out on that particular blessing!

What have we missed out on? Better yet, what will we miss out on if we continually fail to encourage ourselves in the Lord our God? Don't keep looking down in despair at the sour lemons. Instead, look up, then seek for fresh fruit and fresh perspectives that will enable you to be encouraged.