All of us need encouragement. It is a tool that increases our confidence and inspires us to act with courage, spirit and strength.
First and foremost we need to learn how to encourage ourselves. We are the only person we are with twenty four hours each day, seven days a week: 24/7 is our time with ourselves. We need to be equipped with tools to help us minister to ourselves.
Many times people feel dissatisfied because they don’t feel appreciated by others. That’s understandable. Of course we all long to be valued by others.
But if our happiness depends on the encouragement of others, we may at times find ourselves being needlessly discouraged. The solution is to encourage yourself!
Here are three Psalms that I hope will encourage you through troubled times.
Psalm 46
Psalm 46 seems to be written just for those who are in deep trouble with little way of escape.
The psalmist writes, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (Psalm 46:1-2).
The psalmist wants us to rest and “be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations” (Psalm 46:10).
Our troubles must seem like mountains to us, and we see the impossibility of moving them. But instead of moving the mountain, God may move us.
This we know for sure: God is our refuge in times of trouble and strength in our times of weakness and, for all who cry out to Him, is “a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 3
Psalm 3 sounds a lot like a Christian living among his or her own family members, friends, or co-workers who don’t believe in God, as he writes, “O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God” (Psalm 3:1-2).
Does that sound familiar? The psalmist, and I hope you, believe otherwise that “salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people” (Psalm 3:8) and that the Lord is “a shield about me” and you (Psalm 3:3).
We can say with the same confidence that the psalmist writes, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around” (Psalm 3:6).
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Psalm 40
Psalm 40 is a tender testimony to the faithfulness of God, as he writes, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1), and “he drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure” (Psalm 40:2).
Truly, “blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie” (Psalm 40:4).
When evils encompass you and they’re beyond number and “they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me” (Psalm 40:12), you can pray with confidence, “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me”(Psalm 40:13).
What is your favorite psalm in times of trouble? Could you let us know by writing down the psalm Bible verse and chapter?
I want you to share with others your favorite psalm when times get hard, which may help someone else. Tell us why it is so comforting to you.
For me, these three psalms give me hope in a God Who can do anything because nothing is too hard for Him.
