How David Talked Himself Back Up

Staying encouraged is not the default setting. Bad news is free and constant, and a heart can go cold without anyone ever deciding to let it.

Jesus said it would work like that. Matthew 24:12 says, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Wax cold. Slow, not sudden.

God gave Joshua the counter to it: "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Joshua 1:9). Fear and discouragement are two different attacks. The promise underneath both is His presence, which was never conditional on your mood.

David had a day where everything collapsed at once. 1 Samuel 30:6 says, "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." Nobody encouraged him. He went and got it himself, out of what God had already said.

That is available to you too, and it is not positive thinking. Isaiah 26:3 says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." He keeps you. The Holy Spirit supplies the peace, you are simply choosing where to park your attention.

So be deliberate about it today. Discouragement arrives without an invitation, encouragement usually has to be picked up. Go get some out of God's Word before you need it.