Strengthen Yourself in the Lord

What I am sharing with you below was written in response to a loved one who asked for prayer and just needed someone to talk to. God prompted me to share this with you as well, but I am keeping it confidential and by no means demeaning my love and concern for who it was shared with first. It came from my heart to that person and is now being passed on as a help to someone else who may need to hear this as well. 

Dear Friend,

I'm sorry to hear that you are stressed. I hope you know that you can call me any time, day or night, to talk. I know how it is to need someone to talk to, but sometimes it just isn't possible. It is in those situations we can ALWAYS talk to the Lord. Jesus is our dearest friend and IS there for us every second of every hour of every day. Since He is the best friend any of us can have we can talk to Him just like we would a best friend. Through faith, we know He is listening.

King David knew stress -- he ran from king Saul for years, fearing for his life. He had to leave family and friends. He had to live in caves and rely on people he encountered to feed him. He had to fight battles against enemies that tried to defeat Israel. His child died. One of his older children tried to dethrone and kill him. Some of us can only imagine what his life was like, but even imagining, we could not begin to understand. When I think of how life has been hard on me...I think of David. 

God called David a man after His own heart. When considering the psalms we see David's heart. He talked to God like He was his best friend. He was so truthful with his thoughts before God because he knew God was aware of them anyway. So, he wasn't afraid to ask God why He had forsaken him (of course, God hadn't, but that was the way he felt at the time). He wasn't afraid to tell God his most intimate feelings whether they were good or bad.

David wrote the majority of the psalms and in most of them you can see his fear, sorrow, or shame at the beginning of each one and as he cried out to God you then see a change of tone. His whole thought process would change from complaining to praising. I can relate to that. When I am under great distress and pray and cry out to God there comes an inner calming of my spirit that I can't explain. When I choose to handle things on my own I continue to be in distress. 

In surfing the web the other day I came across this verse -- "Then David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." (1 Samuel 30:6) I wondered to myself...how did David strengthen himself in the Lord? What did he do? Then, God brought a thought and the following verses to my mind: 

Like I mentioned above, David was honest before God about his feelings and sought His comfort, but also David remembered how God was there for him in the past. While David watched his father's flock of sheep, lions and bears would try to attack, but David slew them and protected the flock. He had victory over these ferocious predators. He knew God had helped him. So, when David went up against Goliath, he had courage because he trusted God and remembered how the Lord had been with him before. Here are his words to king Saul, "Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee." (1 Samuel 17:36-37)  

We will do well to always let David be our example and do as he did in times of stress -- cry out to God and admit our inability to handle a situation and remember that God has been there for us before. With Jesus as our best friend and God as our loving Father we will get through anything satan throws at us! Greater is He (God) who is in us than he (satan) who is in the world. (Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. ~1 John 4:4) 

Goliath is a perfect picture of satan and satan was no match for David's God -- the same God we serve. God is no respecter of persons, so we are just as special to God as David was.

I will be praying that you will seek comfort in the Lord and you will feel His presence. And again, please know you can call me any time.

May God bless you today over and above what you are able to receive! 

With Much Love, 

The Princess Warrior

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Copyright © 2009 The Princess Warrior Ministries. All articles are copyrighted on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Permission granted for not-for-sale reproduction in exact form including copyright and web address. Other uses require written permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.