Pastor's Corner: Encourage yourself in the Lord

Encourage – To give someone courage, hope or confidence.

Discourage – To deprive courage, dishearten, or be disapproving.

Life, itself, will discourage us at times. People will discourage us at times. We, ourselves, will discourage ourselves at times.

Many years ago, there was a young lawyer who suffered such deep depression that his friends thought it was wise to keep all knives and razors from him. During this time, he wrote, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me” (Letter to John Stuart; January 23, 1841). If this young lawyer had remained in this depressive state, history may have never recorded one of America’s most beloved presidents, Abraham Lincoln.

Discouragement will come knocking at every door, while at many of those moments, encouragement is nowhere to be found. Sometimes, people in our lives will attempt to encourage us, but yet we know down deep, that many times they simply do not understand. What are we to do in those times?

In the Bible, the psalmist David has some of the most encouraging words for those suffering from discouragement. Yet, the psalmist David, himself, was at times “greatly distressed.” It was in these discouraging times, that I Samuel 30:6, says, “But David encouraged himself in the Lord His God.” David served a God that helped him when others couldn’t and even when he couldn’t help himself. But both the Psalmist David and Abraham Lincoln would say today, “Let us renew our trust in God and move forward without fear.”

Frank Cabrera is the pastor at Truth Church, Shafter.