Daily EncouragementSample

“But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” is how the Authorized Version puts it. He certainly needed strength and encouragement. Inwardly he must have sensed that his involvement with Achish and the Philistines had been despicable. Now he was confronted with devastating circumstances: “When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive” (1 Sam. 30:3). When he finished weeping with sheer exhaustion, he faced the antagonism of bitter men.

Where can a man find encouragement in such circumstances? He can find it in “the Lord his God.” The believer is never without hope, because he is never without God. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1), and nothing in all Creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35-39).

The encouragement which God gives is found in the guidance, which we receive as we turn to him: “and David enquired of the Lord” (1 Sam. 30:7). It is found too, in the Lord’s gracious overruling of circumstances, so that in the end things are not as bad as we imagined: “Nothing was missing . . . David brought everything back” (1 Sam. 30:19).