One of the common things I deal with as a pastor is helping people when they face a crisis in life. There is a common question. It may not always be asked this way, but it’s like this: What are we to do when we feel weak?
Maybe you’re in a crisis and you’re asking: “This feels too hard. I can’t do this anymore.” Or: “I just don’t have the strength.” Or even: “What’s the point? I can’t do this.”
It could be something simple that feels overwhelming: making friends at a new school, taking a difficult class, or moving to a new city. Or it could be something bigger: having a baby, parenting teenagers, caring for aging parents, or grieving loved ones lost. Maybe it’s a business that isn’t going well, or the risk and strain of starting one. Or even larger threats: persecution, losing your home, or the devastation of war. These things push us to a place where we don’t feel strong enough to handle life.
Thinking bigger still, after the events of the last several weeks, most notably the assassination of Charlie Kirk, many may be asking: What are we to do? Where can we find strength to persevere?
The question is: When we feel weak, where can we find strength?
Let’s look at 1 Samuel 30 and see what God’s Word says.
David Strengthens Himself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:1–8)
David and his men had just escaped a compromising situation. They had been fighting alongside the Philistines, essentially as mercenaries. But when the Philistines prepared to go to war against Israel, they sent David away. David and his men must have felt relieved to be done with Philistine warlord life and were eager to return home to Ziklag, where their wives and children lived. It was their own little shire, a place of retreat and reprieve.
But when they arrive on the third day, they find Ziklag burned to the ground and their families gone. Their shire has been scoured. They don’t know yet who did this. They just know their homes are destroyed, their people carried away. Imagine the despair: constantly on the run, hunted, never at rest. They have suffered immensely already and this is just the cherry on top. They are at the end of themselves. They cry out and weep. How long oh Lord. How could this have happened? They weep until they have no more tears. They were bitter in soul. Grief had consumed them. They are so despondent and fed up with this life that they are ready to kill David with rocks. Things are very bleak.
David has led these men and protected his people. They have been loyal to him. But now even his own men turn on him. The text says he himself was greatly distressed. So what does David do in his great distress? When David is weak and thinks ‘I can’t take this anymore,’ what will he do? The text says: He strengthens himself in the Lord.
This is a very important concept. When we feel distressed, when we feel beat down, like we just can’t catch a break, and life is overwhelming, as if God is not on our side, what are we to do?
When we are weak, when life feels unbearable, when even friends turn on us, we must strengthen ourselves in the Lord.
But what does that mean? Is this just another evangelical platitude? Or is there actually something to be done?
Strengthening in the Lord means:
It’s personal. David goes to his God. There is a particularity to the faith that David has with the Lord. It is “his” God. There is a relationship in the religion. It is a vital personal faith that David has in God. The Lord is your God. Not just a God or the God. He is your God. If you want to be strengthened in the Lord, then you must have a personal faith in the Lord. If you claim that Jesus Christ is Lord, then Jesus Christ must be your Lord. You must be able to say that you will cry out to the Lord your God. It’s personal.
It’s remembering. David recalls God’s promises. David remembers where his strength comes from. It comes from the Lord. So he knows and remembers where to go when he is weak. He trusts that the Lord intends good for him and so he doesn’t distract himself or soothe himself, He remembers the Lord and turns to the Lord. When you are weak, you remember the Lord.
It’s going to God in His prescribed ways. You take advantage of the means by which God has granted you access for strength. For David, under the old covenant that meant he went to the Lord by means of the ephod to inquire. The question that we should be asking is: where is my ephod? What does it mean to go to the Lord today?
In Christ, we have access to the Father. Never forget this. Because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished, we have access to the Father. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus replaces the ephod. Now we come before our great high priest, the Son, who sacrificed himself in our place on the cross, and we can come to the Lord with our petitions. We can annoy God with them in fact. He wants us to. We should pray and seek the Lord. We must go to the Lord by the means he has appointed, that being Jesus Christ.
What strengthening in the Lord is not:
Not just crying. Being strengthened in the Lord is not a therapy session. Is it not just crying. David and his men do that. They cry out in their distress. But that does not strengthen them. Crying is not a marker of being strengthened in the Lord. It may be appropriate and legitimate to cry and weep but do not mistake crying for strength. Our strength in God is not just found in our emotional expression but in going to the source of strength, God.
Not just anger. Being strengthened in the Lord is not stewing in anger and bitterness. David’s men also do this. They think that after their tears, they need justice by their own hands. And so filled with anger and bitterness they want to kill David. Anger can make us feel strong, like we’re doing something. It isn’t wrong to be angry. But is wrong to sin in your anger. Anger makes it feel like we are strong, that we are overcoming and getting justice for things that have gone wrong. But this is just human, it is not being strengthened in the Lord.
Not empty religious motions. Being strengthened in the Lord is also not just going through religious motions to soothe yourself. It’s not a letting go and letting God. It is taking that which God has given you and the means to exercise agency and authority and taking that to God and asking how it might want to use you. You must not use the means God has given you as an excuse to inaction. The Christian religion is not a cope. We do not sit idly in finding strength in the Lord. We act.
The Lord Provides (1 Samuel 30:9–15)
David and his men set out because strength leads to action. Along the way, two hundred men are too exhausted and remain behind. The four hundred continue and find an abandoned Egyptian servant, left to die by the Amalekites. David takes him in, feeds him, and discovers through him that it was the Amalekites who destroyed Ziklag.
God provides the information David needs at the right time.
This is often how the providence of God works. Many of us are looking for direct answers about challenges we face. We think that would be nice. Should I take this job? Should I date this person? Should I, should I, should I? We think being strengthened in the Lord means we get exact answers or clarity.
But sometimes, many times in fact, God will call us to step out in our duties and then he will provide. For David, his job was to protect his men, so it was his responsibility to protect them. But he didn’t want to just do this on his own. He wanted to ensure that the Lord was going before Him. And sure enough, as he went out, trusting the Lord, the Lord provided the crucial information he needed to find his enemy. God will provide the resources we need as we step out in faith following Him.
The Spoil Belongs to the Lord (1 Samuel 30:16–25)
The Amalekites are at ease, celebrating their plunder. David attacks, defeats them, and recovers everything. All is restored.
But, we see that the wicked and worthless fellows that were part of David’s ragtag bunch were not a mood to be happy about seeing their brothers. Think about it. To them, these men were too weak and or scared to go up into battle. Rather than pursuing the enemy, these guys just hung out by the water and rested while they did the hard work.
These are men that have been with David, his ragtag bunch of warriors that have been on the run, seen their homes destroyed and the’ve had enough. No mercy to those who did not go out in battle. But David refuses this selfishness. He declares that even those who watched the baggage will share alike. He establishes a statute, recognizing that victory and spoil come from the Lord, not from human strength.
This is the key difference between David and his men:
The bitter men say: “We earned this.”
David says: “The Lord gave this.”
As Paul later asks in 1 Corinthians 4:7: “What do you have that you did not receive?” Because David strengthened himself in the Lord, he knows what we should know, that everything we have is a gift from God.
Summary
When we are weak, we must strengthen ourselves in the Lord.
Personal, vital faith in God.
Remembering His promises.
Going to Him through Christ.
David strengthened himself in the Lord, the Lord provided, and David recognized that all came from the Lord.
This points us to Jesus:
David plundered his enemies and gave gifts.
Jesus triumphed at the cross, plundered the strong man, and gave gifts to His church, namely the Spirit, access to the Father, and every spiritual blessing.
Conclusion
Christ comes bearing gifts. The Father gave His Son for your sins. Through Him, you have peace and joy in the midst of trial.
So when you are downcast, overwhelmed, or tempted to despair, don’t stop at tears, don’t give in to anger, and don’t treat faith as a mere coping mechanism. Run to the Father by way of the Son. Cling to Jesus Christ, your Lord. Remember. Go. Strengthen yourself in the Lord.
This God meets every need, lifts our weary heads, and trains our hands for war.
This type of faith, a faith that is not just a passive trust but an active faith, will lead to confidence for God’s people no matter the circumstances. As Dale Davis says, “Knowing that Yahweh’s enemies will perish (Ps. 92:9) breeds a holy defiance in God’s people against all the threats of the enemy.”
When we know the Lord with a personal vital faith, remember him, and go to him as a church, we will be a city on a hill, a light for the world to see. Why? Not because we are free from hardship and trials but because we know the living God who gives us strength in our hardships and trials. And we know that the trials and sufferings we face pale in comparison to knowing the glory of God and being found in Christ.
So if you are downcast, beat down, and overwhelmed today, do not settle for crying and tears, do not seek to just take matters into your own hands, and don’t treat the Christian religion as a cope to deal with pain. Run to the Father by way of the Son. Cling to Jesus Christ, your Lord, remember the means he has already provided to give you access to the Father, and find strength for today.
Thanks for reading! You can listen to this sermon here or watch here.