Have you ever felt like giving up or throwing in the towel? Are you discouraged, depressed, disappointed? I'm sure that each of us can answer yes.
Life is filled with many different circumstances. We can learn from them or be controlled by them. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah, after a great victory, was hit with a trial. Elijah had a busy day, he ran a marathon in the rain only to get to the end of that run to find out he was a wanted man. From a previous victory to immediate discouragement Elijah found himself very depressed and he felt like caving in.
How gracious is our God? This is a question and a statement at the same time. The Lord allowed him to cave up but wouldn't allow him to cave in. In this chapter we find Elijah being instructed by the word of the Lord to go out to stand and behold. The Lord passed by in a great strong wind, in an earthquake and also in fire. But He was not found in any of the three, He was found in a still small voice.
When Elijah heard the still small voice verse 13 tells us he wrapped his face in his mantle or cloak. I believe that was so he would not be able to see with the physical eye. He would close himself off in physical hearing because we cannot trust at times what we see or what we hear, we can only trust the still small voice of our indwelling Lord.
Elijah's depression was swallowed up through rest, recuperation, a reality check, while being instructed by the Lord to be one that would reach out and be of use.
So, when you're felling depressed, discouraged, disappointed, don't cave in, you may want to cave up for a day or two, seek the Lord, listen for His voice, be refreshed, restored, rejuvenated, grasp ahold of the reality that God is in control, and go out replenished, renewed, and reach out to others as Elijah did.
He went and anointed two kings and the prophet Elisha and was told "you are not alone in Israel, I have reserved 7,000 who have not bowed the knee or kissed the mouth of the idols."
May the Lord bless you with this encouraging chapter. Let us be reminded that Elijah was just a man. What made him different in that day, as what will make us different in this day, is that though he was just a man, he was a yielded man.
To yield is to give our right away.
• Patrick Propster is pastor of Calvary Chapel -Carson City.