Choices!

Have you ever had one of those days when you wake up feeling 'meh'.  I love that word.  It's so descriptive. It sums up those mornings when we feel out of sorts, and often, for no real reason at all.

Now I am quite willing to concede that's maybe a 'girl thing', but even you men can understand that some days we just feel like everything is against us!!  Let's take a look at something from the Word.

Picture the scene (1 Sam 30:1-6):  
David and his men have been away from home.  When they get back it turns out, that in their absence, their enemy has raided the camp and stolen away their wives and children and burned the camp.
The men, quite understandably, weep and wail until they literally have nothing left in them to weep with.

At this point David himself is distraught over his own two wives, as well as the plight of his people.

BUT His men are so distressed that in their grief they begin to speak of stoning David!

At this point David has a choice to make about how he will react to the situation and the men around him.  The end of verse 30 tells us what he opted for: 
"BUT David encouraged himself in the Lord his God".

Sometimes we look at our circumstances and we just have a pity-party or a mope, but we don't have to!  We can encourage ourselves in the Lord our God.  

There are multiple ways I believe we can do this.  In Jude 1:20 (TPT) the bible says "But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit."

Praying in the Spirit builds us up, as does meditation on God's power and goodness (I think I mentioned that last week).  Focussing on the Word and what God has already done in our lives, shifts the focus off of the circumstances around us.  This is what David did.  He turned his heart to the Lord that he had known since childhood.  

He returned to an intimate relationship that had been followed over the years.  I think it's interesting that it says 'the Lord HIS God'.  David knew God. God wasn't somewhere out in the distance.  It was personal.  You read through the Psalms and you can see just how much!    Always, he was going back to that place of relationship, even under an Old Covenant.

In several places we see David say
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?"   It wasn't that he didn't have trials; we've just talked about one of them, and there were many!!!  But always he came back to
"...hope in God: for I shall yet praise him."

I bet he rehearsed in his mind his victory over the lion, the bear, Goliath, and the thousands he had defeated in the past.  He remembered the God who had been with him in all his battles, and how far a little shepherd boy had come through the power of the Lord God Most High.

From that head-space, he set his mind to ask God what to do in this situation, and is positioned to receive his answer.  Having been assured of victory he sets of with 600 men and conquered those who had plundered their camp to take back all that had been stolen and some!

Today, if you are feeling 'meh', 'blah' or just plain discouraged, chose today to encourage yourself in the Lord.  It is a choice.  I am certain David didn't really feel like putting in that sort of effort.  Maybe his first thought was run away, or to grab his sword in anger and attack his own men, but the truth is you have been created with the ability to chose, and to follow through with that choice. 

Rehearse the victories you have seen in your life.  Remind yourself of the answer to prayer you have seen, and look at the heroes of faith in the Word to bring to your mind what an awesome God YOU SERVE. 

When we switch our focus off ourselves and the things that threaten to bring us down, and focus on God, then we position our hearts to hear God's specific direction in our situation for success and we will experience joy and peace, and stop that 'meh' feeling in our lives.