Straight from the Pastor’s heart!
⁃ Contributed by Jeremy Teh
1 Samuel 30:6 - “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.”
Today we are bombarded by the social media with several hypes. We have hypes for physical health; hypes for emotional care; hypes for Physical Fitness; hypes for singles to find the right partner in life, and hypes to make oneself happy. But what we already know with all these info make all the difference when we ask one simple question? “Are we doing them?”
We all want encouragement, but friend are you doing what is necessary to be encouraged? Recently, I had been speaking to a very wise counselor, in the person of our Pastor Hernes… while we were talking and him counseling me, he made a striking statement: “I’ve taught you many things, are you applying them?” That question really rocked me… I was so dumbfounded by those simple words… because most of them were not applied… Think again what I said… if you had the key to encouragement but won’t use or follow it, what is the point? You are just ruining or wasting your time and your life…
My friend whoever you are, and wherever you are in life - are you applying the right things? Let’s go even deeper - are you doing the will of God for you as laid out in the Bible? We might have many questions in need of answers and there are many gray areas in life… but one thing we can be sure of is the faithfulness of God amidst our life… is the encouragement. God is faithful. He is true. He is real. He loves you…
In this passage David was so discouraged enough to probably just isolate his own self… but we find here is another truth … the truth that we can always encourage ourselves in our God… David recognized he needed to shift his attention to God. As a disabled mentally handicapped person, I struggle greatly to do this! But it is the solution! So simple right in our hands and hard to do for the normal man!!! But David had so tested and tried in every situation in his life since his youth the powerful truth that we should always first and foremost turn to God!
I titled this devotion “A message of encouragement” because you CAN truly encourage yourself in Christ… and that is what you must do…
In Conclusion, you might be facing a trial. Perhaps you are hearing this message and you are in deep pain and sorrow… there is hope. I am talking to those like myself… I am not pretending to be whole for I am not!!! But this one thing I can assure you… pray to the Lord… seek Him.. and you will surely find the source of all encouragement - GOD HIMSELF!
EPILOGUE: by Dr. J Hernes Abante
Amen Jeremy and thank you for sharing this!
Our devotional today was written and shared by Jeremy Teh after our zoom counseling session recently to lift up his spirit from all the challenges he is facing. Jeremy suffers from dual diagnosis and he struggles from recurring emotional outbursts or episodes when triggered. With proper mental health management, he can function normally. He can be used by God effectively in helping others with similar conditions as we notice in his insightful devotion today.
The HIM Counseling ministry of the International Bible Baptist Church will soon begin our Group counseling program we call, “More Than a Conqueror,” to help people with emotional and mental issues. If you are interested, you can leave a message here and we will include you in the program. This will start next month on zoom. God bless you!