You are either your greatest encourager or your greatest critic
You are either your greatest encourager or your greatest critic
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| Photo by Pixabay, www.pexels.com |
We all need some encouragement from time to time. Things go wrong, life happens and plans don't always work out the way we want them to. What happens next is up to us, will I reinforce the negatives that have happened and the negative words spoken over me OR will I remind myself of the goodness of God and of all the blessings that I have?
If I fill my mind with the negative words from others, complaining, negative things happening on the news and around me: I am going to fall into despair!
Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." NIV
To transform my thinking, I need to encourage myself when I feel down. This life is full of seasons: some are pleasant like summer, when I am carefree and things keep going my way, while others try to crush my hope like a frozen winter.
In Psalm 23 David pours his heart out to God. It starts positively, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing"; and yet soon we move to v4 "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."
In the good times and even in the bad times, God is with us! We need to keep our eyes on Him and keep placing our hand in his every day and allow Him to lead us. No matter how dark or scary our circumstances, God is always with us.
Psalm 42:5 "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." NIV
When I feel down, do I encourage myself? Or do I complain, while I set up camp in the Valley of Miserableness for an extended stay? When David confronts Goliath, he doesn't do it in his own strength or confidence. The giant would have killed him. David testifies to the king about God's protection in his life. David was a shepherd and shepherds would carry a staff. Every time they encountered God, they marked this staff to remember what He had done. This was a way for them to look back during difficult times and to remind themselves of what God had done - so their faith could be strengthened!
1 Samuel 17:37 "The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” NIV
Do we record the goodness of God in our lives? Recently I found an old diary from Covid and lockdown, where I had lost my job and it seemed like my whole world was falling apart. As I continued to read, I found the good things God had done to restore me since then. I shared this in church and found it overwhelming, I cried because of how far God has brought me from that low point.
So when things go wrong, when life happens and our plans don't work out - this is what our attitude needs to be:
1 Samuel 17:45 "David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." NIV
Negative self talk is deadly and to be avoided! If David kept telling himself: "I am a nobody", then he would not have had the faith he needed to confront Goliath. "Give up now, it is hopeless, it will never get better", if we continually talk and think like this then our situation will become hopeless because that is what we believe. You convince yourself of something and then you believe it to be true.
- God is my strength!
- God has done it before!
- God will do it again!
This is how faith grows and this is one way that we can encourage ourselves during difficult times.