Don't shoot the wounded

A recent FaceBook conversation I had has me thinking about how seldom Christian encourage one another. My pastor used to say the Lord's army is the only army that shoots their wounded. We might not all be guilty of shooting the wounded or putting down the discouraged, but i daresay that we all have been guilty of not encouraging one another as we should. We can't all sing; we can't all teach or preach. But we can all encourage each other. I can't help but think of the battle of Amalek in Exodus 17. The Bible tells us that as long as Moses' hands were in the air Israel would prevail and win the battle. But Moses was human and his hands got tired. Aaron and Hur stood behind him and held his hands up for him. When we encourage people we might not get any credit or any glory; we might be behind somebody who can be seen up on the mountain from the valley, but the Lord sees us. This week take the time to encourage someone. I would like to ask everyone to specifically encourage your pastor this week; let him/her know that you are praying for them. Let their spouse know that too. You'll be amazed at how much better they preach when they someone is holding their hands up.

God's Prozac

1 Samuel 30:6 tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord. It seems to me that the biggest difference between Saul and David was that David did this one thing, he encouraged himself in the Lord. How many of the Psalms were written by David? David literally spent his whole life encouraging himself in the Lord. He didn't rely on parents, friends, teachers, or anyone else. It seems thats a good thing, as his own father didn't think he had the potential to be king. Saul and David both sinned; they both had shortcomings, but only one was considered a man after God's own heart. I believe the Lord is looking for people to raise up and be like David and learn to encourage themselves in Him, rather than look to a pastor, teacher, mentor, or leader to do it. We need to be Davids and not Sauls. Once we do this I believe the Lord will take care of our possessions, our position, our place, and our people. All of David's possessions that were taken by the enemy were returned, his position changed from that of a shepherd to a king, his place from the pasture to the palace, and his people from those in distress, discouraged, and in debt to might men. All this because David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Holy Impatience

Abraham and King Saul both got in a hurry and did not wait on the Lord. Saul basically lost his kingdom over this and Abraham gave us a whole new nation/race that still troubles the world today. So, it is definitely important to learn to wait on the Lord. However, i also believe that there are certain things that the Lord puts inside of us that He wants us to do. Jeremiah spoke of a fire being shut up in his bones. So, while we are to wait on the Lord, I do not believe he expects us to sit idly by while He does all of the work for us.
That begs the question, where is the line between holy impatience and sin. I think that there are two different things that can cause us to cross the line. These two things are lack of faith and motive. Abraham demonstrates lack of faith. His motive was pure; he just doubted whether Jehova could do what He said. Saul on the other hand wanted to look good in front of the people. That's why he asked Samuel to stand with him in front of the people one more time, even after he was told he had lost his kingdom. So, if we believe that the Lord is able to do what He said he would do, and we have pure motives, we can and should WORK for the Lord.