#NUTSHELL – JULY 20th—ROCK AND A HARD PLACE – 1 Samuel 30: A few years ago you may remember the backpacker in Utah that was trapped when a boulder fell and pinned his arm to a rock wall. No help was around in this remote part of the back country. He only had a dull knife that couldn’t chip the rock away, so Aron Ralston decided to cut the lower part of his arm off, that didn’t work either. After five days without food, water, family or friends, he broke his arm and then severed it with his knife. He rigged a make shift tourniquet and wrapped the stump, rappelling down a 65 foot cliff and hiking several days until he was discovered by family who called for help. A gripping and compelling story isn’t it? We find ourselves at times trapped between a rock and a hard place. There’s no one to help or understand. If we do not encourage ourselves it will not happen. David in the Old Testament found himself in a deep hole in the town of Ziklag in 1 Samuel 30. He mentor, Samuel, was dead. David had been rejected and exposed to danger by the Philistines. The Amalekites had invaded his camp and kidnapped the families of he, and his men. His friends were turning on him and his loyal followers were ready to stone him. At that dark time we encounter a powerful sentence in God’s Word. It reveals one of our most vital spiritual techniques. “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). Call it self-encouragement. Call it what you will, when our family and friends aren’t with us, when we’re between a rock and a hard place, we’ve got to know to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. Ralston’s and David’s story gives us an example that at times in order to keep going on we must encourage ourselves to face the challenges and become an over-comer in the Lord.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 11:02:40 +0000
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