That’s a common phrase for me when things aren’t going so great. Not necessarily that things are bad, but, sometimes life just gets the best of us. We get stressed out with school, work, our personal lives- sometimes, a combination of all three. And, life simply gets to become life. As we get older, we realize that all the warnings of growing up that we were told as kids and teens by adults were pretty accurate, and it can be pretty discouraging.

I know that when I was growing up, especially in a Christian home, I was always taught to be there for others when they needed me. I was to be an encourager to those who were down in the dumps about life. But, what about when I was in the dumps about life? What if I was the one needing encouragement? It’s not typical for one to go up to another and say “hey, I need some encouraging.” There’s nothing wrong with that, so don’t be ashamed if you do. Sometimes, though, a word from a friend just isn’t enough.

The truth is that no amount of friends, family, or vacations to get away from life’s woes are able to get and keep our hearts completely encouraged. We can feel a lifting for a while, we can laugh, forget for a time—we can even agree that we need to quit being discouraged—but when we lie in bed at night, we feel the weight of the pain and the horror of the storm that we call life. It’s at these points that we need to be like David in I Samuel 30:6: “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.” David didn’t find encouragement in a vacation or get in contact with his best friends- no, he encouraged himself in his God. Now, don’t get me wrong, we need vacations and we need the strength of our friends, but with emotional pain it takes God’s strength to overcome discouragement.

We can call every friend we can think of to pray for us, to visit us. We can continually pray and cry out in pain and still be extremely discouraged. But, there comes a point where the spirit of our infirmity becomes greater than God. That spirit of discouragement begins to solidify that hopelessness within us.

David recognized the need for survival—if he was discouraged, it would bring terrible consequences to Israel. Someone had to remember God. David said in Psalm 77:10-11; 13, “This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember the wonders of old… Thy was, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” David remembered the grace of God. The most important thing to remember when it comes to self-encouragement is knowing ahead of time that when a storm of life comes towards us, we glorify God not the storm, no matter the outcome. Because, no matter what He does, He does all things well.