Strengthening Yourself in the Lord

Strengthening Yourself in the Lord

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Text: 1Samuel 30:1-6, Daniel 7:25

If I find myself mentally tiered, I can know this is a strategy of our enemy to convince me of his truth – not God’s truth, but Satan’s “fake news.”

Every one of us are vulnerable to discouraging words from our enemy.
It doesn’t mattery how old you are in Christ, if we don’t know how to encourage or strengthen ourselves when we are going through a hard time, we will tend to listen to the enemy as he gives us his false report about the facts.

Before we read our next text, let’s look at the setting.
The first we hear about David, he was a shepherd boy and faced repeated rejection—from his own family, his older brother, and King Saul—even after being anointed as the future king and famously defeating Goliath.
As Saul’s jealousy forced David to flee, he became a leader to Israel’s outcasts, living in the wilderness and later among the Philistines, who gave him the city of Ziklag. After one of their raids, David and his followers return home to find disaster had struck.
1Sam.30:1-6

I can’t imagine the emotional pain David must have been going through.
Not only had his family been kidnaped, but the friends he had poured his life into began to blame him to the point of suggestion they kill David.
So in ver.6 when it says, “David was greatly distressed,” that’s an understatement.

He had lived with rejection all his life. It had been 15 years since God had blessed and anointed him to become King, and yet with all that he was still living as an outcast. “God I thought Your blessing would help me?”

Ver.6b “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”
What ever he did, how ever he did it, David turned his heart to “his” God and strengthened himself.

Too often I lend my attention to the god of chaos, instead of my Father God.
Ver.7-8

I believe that if I have a game plan before I experience chaos, I recover better.

I want to give some simple steps to: Strengthening yourself in the Lord.

Pray – simply visit with God about what you recognize is going on in your heart.
Jesus did – Joh 12:27 “Now My soul is troubled…”

Ps 55:22 “Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved”.

Pray in tongues - Jude 1:20 “…, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,…”

Use the weapon of Thanksgiving. Start listing the things God has given.
Remind yourself of times of victories.

Quote scripture.
Find a scripture that has to do with what you are facing or just quote a verse you know. The Word is anointed.

Worship - Spend time worshiping God. With or without music.

Remind yourself of the Word God speaks over you.
Isa 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Talk to yourself using God’s truth.
Ps 103:1-2 ” Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…”

Engage in gang warfare. We were not meant to fight battles alone.
Get with another believing friend, and share what you are going through, and ask them to pray with / for you.

Find rest, take time to withdraw, rest, and recharge. Pastor Gary hears “take a nap.”

Do you know what was the next major event in David’s life? He was put in place as king.
The enemy was trying to get David to give up on God’s truth.

We are not devil focused, but God focused. Grab ahold of the dial and re-focus on God.

Night vision goggles work by gathering the light that is available to them and use that light to see. Light conquers darkness EVERY TIME.
Gather every bit of what God is doing in the moment, and use that light to focus in a dark place.