Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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Finding Encouragement

Several months ago, I wrote about the power of encouragement (See the July 22/08 Challenge).  It bears repeating that we all need to be encouraged from time to time because there is much in our world and in the stuff of daily living that can discourage us.  How wonderful it is when a brother or sister comes alongside of us and speaks an appropriate word or does some act of kindness that meets a very real need that we have.  How wonderful it is to be that person and to be able to do that for someone else too!

Many years ago, when I was a youth pastor in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I had a friend named Curt who was an encourager.  He would often show up at the times when I needed someone, and simply spend time with me.  It wasn't always what he said or did, sometimes it was just the fact that he was there.  He even showed up a couple of times after we moved to Winkler.  Last I heard, he was somewhere in Colorado, and I'm sure he was carrying on his ministry of encouragement.  He had a real ministry to troubled kids as well, and I remember listening as he talked to one of these young people on the phone on one occasion when we were together.  After he had talked to them for quite a while, he proceeded to give them his phone number and told them to call any time night or day, he would be available.  And then he said something very interesting.  He said that if he could not be reached when they tried to call, they should not be bothered, then it was simply that God himself wanted to be their encouragement and they were to draw into him and his resources.

Someone has said that the greatest fear of modern man is that he will be alone.  It is partly that that draws us together as people.  But the truth is that sometimes God wants to get us alone.  Not alone on our own but alone with him.  His promise is that he will never leave us or forsake us, so even when I am the only one in a particular place, I am in reality never alone!  It is often in those alone times, however, that I have some of my greatest struggles and my greatest battles.  How do we find the encouragement we need when there is no one around?

Scripture has two suggestions.  The first is found in the life of David.  David and his men had been out at war but when they returned to the town of Ziklag where they had been camped, they discovered that the Amalekites had raided the town while they had been gone, burned it to the ground, and taken all of the women and children captive.  What was their response?  We are told that "David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep" (1 Samuel 30:4).  Needless to say, this was not a great day.  Pretty discouraging.  David's two wives had been captured and taken.  That was bad enough.  But it was about to get worse.  Who had led them away into battle?  David.  Who's fault was it that this had happened?  David.  And now, David is even more distressed because the men were talking about stoning him because of what had happened.  Don't you love it when a bad day gets worse?  David found himself in grave trouble and all alone.  What did he do?  And what should we do?  Scripture says,

"But David encouraged himself in the LORD his God" (1 Samuel 30:6). 

We are never really alone.  We are never far from the one who can really give us what we need.  Yes, our brothers and sisters can help, but there is a place that is reserved for God alone, and when we really need encouragement, he is the only one who can help.  David encouraged himself in the Lord, and we can and should do the same.  Get alone with God and like David, inquire of the Lord what you need to do (1 Samuel 30:8).  "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).  "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you" (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

Along with a simple retreat into God, scripture suggests a second thing that we can do when there is no one around.  Romans says,

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4).

Get alone with God.  Find your encouragement in him.  At the same time, open up his word.  It was all written so that we would endure, persevere, stick it out even when it is difficult.  God's word was written to encourage us.  We need to dig into it and find the resources that we need to encourage our way out of whatever we find ourselves in.

It is always easier to simply find someone to complain to or with whom we can share our problems.  Resist the temptation to do that.  We may find that they do not always help.  We might go away feeling a little better only to find that nothing has really changed.  On the other hand, when we encourage ourselves in the Lord by meeting with him, or find in the Word of God the encouragement that gives us hope, we will genuinely be encouraged and find that we have the strength not only to go on but to overcome!