Welcome to the blog of Pastor Alton Stone, from Simpsonville, SC. Pastor Stone is a retired Ordained Bishop of The Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee with over 45 years of pastoral ministry.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Five Ways To Encourage Yourself In The Lord

Perhaps at this juncture in your life, you're wondering how you can encourage yourself in the Lord and in so doing be a blessing to yourself and others as well. There are five main ways this can be accomplished.

(1) We encourage ourselves through Prayer. In Philippians 4:6-8, Paul cites this most powerful means of receiving peace, in spite of troubling circumstances. We are to pray about everything that produces anxiety. If you are worried about the future, pray!

(2) Singing praises to God will bring encouragement. This is not only a safeguard, but also the God-given means to silence the foe and the avenger. In fact, just listening to Christian music will help greatly. Saul felt better, just because he listened to David playing his harp in 1 Samuel 16:23.

(3) A third way to encourage yourself is through Christian fellowship, if you can find it. Nothing can replace this important aspect of our race. In fact, in Acts 2:42, the early church placed it on a par with Bible study, prayer and communion! The people you choose to fellowship with in your free time will greatly help or hinder your walk with God.

(4)Bible study with meditation upon God and his Word will also help. In Proverbs 4:22, the Hebrew teaches that God's Word is medicine for our spirits. Furthermore, God's Word was directly given for encouragement according to Romans 15:4. We are promised perfect peace if our minds are steadfast in thinking about God. Your thoughts do create or disrupt your peace. Few realize the importance of their thought life.

(5) Try talking to yourself. The sons of Korah used this technique as shown in Psalm 42:5,6. See how they did it.

Now that you know what to do and how to do it, the choice is yours, as it was for David! To be victorious, at times, you're going to have to encourage yourself in the Lord. Victory and blessings followed David's choice. I believe the same can happen for you.

No comments:

Post a Comment