Encouraging yourself in the Lord Pt. 1

While on furlough after our first term in Papua New Guinea, I heard my new pastor in Upper Michigan preach.  In the course of the message, he made a reference to David who was in a difficult situation in Ziklag.  It looked like he and his mighty men might have lost everything.  See 1 Samuel 30.  It was a dire situation.  They seemed to hold David responsible.  A few actually wanted to kill him.  He was alone with no human help.  Then the pastor said that David encouraged himself in the Lord.  v. 6.  The pastor went on to talk about the result, but he didn’t talk about how one might encourage themselves in the Lord.  Well, that’s where I was stuck.
That’s what I wanted, no, needed to know, because sometimes we get down.  Sometimes the circumstances are stacked against us.  Sometimes people are stacked against us.  Sometimes it might seem like the whole world is stacked against us.  If that’s the case, there may be no one or nowhere to go to receive encouragement.  You may have to rely on the Lord and on yourself to administer the encouragement that you need in order to carry on in a hopeless or chaotic situation.  Wow, what a tool this must be!
The pastor didn’t give me the tools so I began to study the issue.  I searched the Scriptures for things that were available to me to administer to myself the encouragement that I would need in just that kind of situation.  I eventually identified about ten individual, but related, things that I could do to encourage myself in the Lord.  As we look at this, note that some are simply self-administered and some are things that we will have to seek the Lord for.  Even in that seeking our attention is drawn back to Him in ways that will be encouraging in and of themselves.
So, sit back and follow me for the next 10 weeks or so and get a full list . . . a full tool chest of things that you can use to uplift yourself in a tough time.  I won’t do a deep theological study on these things.  I’m just going to give you the tools so that you can learn to use them when you need them.  God bless you.