{"id":667,"date":"2014-07-20T03:08:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-20T03:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/?p=667"},"modified":"2014-07-20T03:16:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-20T03:16:08","slug":"are-you-feelig-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/?p=667","title":{"rendered":"Are You Feeling Down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“I need encouragement, you need encouragement, we ALL need encouragement!”<\/p>\n

The words of the speaker wafted on. I little dreamed how \u00a0these \u00a0introductory words would stick in my mind for over fifty years.<\/p>\n

I can see now after a span of years, that to encourage\u00a0 others is one of the best gifts that God has given to each one of us. No matter how old or how young we are, we can all say nice things to others, especially those in our own family.<\/p>\n

David, in spite of knowing God so well, is a classic example of one who needed encouragement. Jonathan and David were best friends. They had clicked right from the start of their first meeting in Saul\u2019s court . Jonathan liked David very much, with his youthful freshness and good looks that took everyone\u2019s eye. As they talked together that they both felt the other was a special friend. They thought alike and Jonathan loved the way David appreciated God, while David felt he had someone he could trust in the\u00a0 dangerous court of King Saul.<\/p>\n

Even more than Jonathan looking after David\u2019s needs, was his appreciation of\u00a0 God\u2019s plans for David\u2019s future. He not only knew that God\u2019s plan was for David to be the next king, but he was happy about it and planned that he would be second\u00a0 in command. When David was on the run for his life, he would meet him as often as he could, and encourage him in the Lord looking to the future when he would work with David as King. They were so sure of this that they made a covenant (promise) together before the Lord promising that they would always keep it.<\/p>\n

But the time came when they were separated, to see each other no more, and David was left without the comfort of Jonathan\u2019s encouragement.\u00a0 Perhaps you are missing friends you once had and now you are separated from\u00a0 them. \u00a0What can you do? \u00a0What did David do?<\/p>\n

David told \u00a0God all about it. Things couldn\u2019t have looked blacker for him. His friend\u00a0 was gone, his enemies were still after him, and they had taken his wife and family captive and his own men had turned against him.<\/p>\n

We have times when we feel like this. We all have enemies of fears, doubts, and other problems, even not feeling well; these enemies\u00a0 seem about to swamp us at times. David may have wondered where God was in all this mess\u2026..where\u00a0 were His promises now? However could he get out of all this?<\/p>\n

But he took himself to task, and sang these songs\u2026.\u201dWhy are you so cast down O my soul? Hope in God!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBe of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is fixed O God\u201d, he would say, \u201cI will sing and give You praise in spite of my enemies!\u201d<\/p>\n

So we too, can fix our hearts and minds on the Lord and not be afraid of bad things. We can think about Him and count our blessings. Think of all we can be\u00a0 thankful for in spite of our circumstances and we\u00a0 will be encouraged with a fresh outlook on things. It is surprising what a difference a thankful spirit makes, and being thankful for the outcome of our prayers BEFORE we see the answer will give the peace of God that passes all understanding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I need encouragement, you need encouragement, we ALL need encouragement!” The words of the speaker wafted on. I little dreamed how \u00a0these \u00a0introductory words would stick in my mind for over fifty years. I can see now after a span of years, that to encourage\u00a0 others is one of the best gifts that God has … Continue reading Are You Feeling Down?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grandmas-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p69z0J-aL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}