Hi, friends, thanks for joining us for today's word of encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today entitled Encouraged in God was written by James Banks.

In 1925, Langston Hughes, an aspiring writer working as a busboy at a hotel,

discovered that a poet he admired, Vachel Lindsay, was staying there as a guest. Hughes shyly

slipped Lindsay some of his own poetry, which Lindsay later praised enthusiastically at a public reading.

Lindsay's encouragement resulted in Hughes receiving a university scholarship,

furthering him on his way to his own successful writing career.

A little encouragement can go a long way, especially when God is in it.

Scripture tells us of an incident when David was on the run from King Saul who was trying to take his life. In 1 Samuel 23, Saul's son Jonathan sought

David out and helped him find strength in God. Don't be afraid, he said. My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king

over Israel. Jonathan was right. David would be king. The key to the effective encouragement

Jonathan offered is found in the simple phrase in God. Through Jesus, God gives us eternal encouragement and good hope. As we humble ourselves before

him, he lifts us as no other can. All around us are people who need the encouragement God

gives. If we seek them out as Jonathan sought David and gently point them to God through a kind word or action, he'll do the rest.

Regardless of what this life may hold, a bright future in eternity awaits those who trust in him.

Now let's turn our attention to the Old Testament writing of 1 Samuel chapter 23, verses 15 through 24.

While David was at Horesh in the desert of Zip, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life.

And Saul's son, Jonathan, went to David at Horish, and helped him find

strengthened God. Don't be afraid, he said. My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king

over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this. The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. Then Jonathan went

home, but David remained at Horish. The Ziphytes went up to Saul at Gibbia and said,

Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds of Horish, on the hill of Hakila, south of Jeschamon?

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