Hi everyone, I hope you are all fine by God’s grace. Today we’re continuing with our series on encouragement. We’ll talk about Encouragement from God.
You can have a link to encouragement part 1 here.
There’s a very nice story which illustrates encouragement from God in 2 Kings chapters 18-19. I invite you to read that story. I’ll just try to pick some verses, in order to comment on them.
2 Kings 18:9, 13, 17, 19-22, 25, 30, 32-35 KJV
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. [13] Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. [17] And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field. [19] And Rab-shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? [20] Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? [21] Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. [22] But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? [25] Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. [30] Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord , saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. [32] Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. [33] Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? [34] Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? [35] Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
To summarise this all, the king of Assyria sent messengers to Juda in order to discourage them and convince them that God can’t help them out and that the other gods didn’t help the other people either, as such, they should surrender to the king of Assyria.
I think we’ve all faced periods of great discouragement, but we can learn a lot from this story Through Hezekiah’s reaction to discouragement in 2Kings 19.
1. The place of encouragement
Infront of all those discouraging words, Hezekiah seeks refuge in the presence of The Lord, by going to pray in the temple /by sending people to the prophet Isaiah. (2Kings19:1-4,14)
Where is the place where we find encouragement ? The throne or grace of God. In God’s presence, we find encouragement .
Hebrews 4:16 KJV
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
2. The words of encouragement
God Himself encourages us. Very often, what discourages us happens to be negative and or pessimistic words we hear. God’s advice to us with respect to those words of discouragement is this :
2 Kings 19:6-7 KJV
….. Thus saith the Lord , Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard,……. [7] Behold, I will……..
This says it all, fear not, because God’s gonna do something about it. No matter the amount of negative words you’ve heard, God’s gonna do something with His own positive Word.
3.The decision of encouragement
Now, the enemy/medias/Tv/news shot/society ….etc ,they have all done their everyday work ,they told you just enough to discourage you. On the other hand, God too did His work, He has encouraged you(and continues to tell you not to fear).
As the enemy continues to send fiery darts of discouragement, it’s up to you to decide who you are going to listen to. The enemy discouraging you, or God encouraging you.
There’s something Hezekiah did with the encouragement he obtained from God. Let’s look at it.
4. The fruits of encouragement (positive prayers /positive speech /positive confessions)
Firstly, God is God, The Only True God .Draw a table in your mind when you feel threatened.
Who is stronger ? God or your threat /threator(s)?
Who is The Only God ? Our God I’d greater and He is The Only God.
Hence, who’s gonna win this battle ? God.
Secondly, am not asking you to neglect or denigh what the enemy said to discourage you. Sometimes some of those things are facts, true facts, for example the messengers of the King of Assyria were right. He had overthrown so many nations, destroyed so many people, he was strong and powerful and the gods of the other nations could do nothing against him(since their gods weren’t God). Nevertheless, the enemy just shows one side of the story. All those things are true, but one thing wasn’t mentioned. Israel’s case is different, God is with Israel. God wasn’t with those nations which fell before the King of Assyria, God was with Israel.
Please where you are, say these words “my case is different, God is with me “.
This is what to do when God encourages you, believe Him, pray,think and speak positive, call forth God’s blessing in your life, His Word is true.
In the end, the failures to which those who serve idols were confronted only contributed to make all visible God’s glory in the lives of His beloved people.
God shall give me victory over my enemies.
Romans 8:31 KJV
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
This was our toolkit number one against discouragement.
Please like, comment, share and don’t miss out on next post God willing.
God bless you all.
0 Comments