DISCOURAGED? HOLD ON!

“Even the best fall down sometimes” says a popular rock song. We all go through moments and seasons when we face discouragements and despair. Getting discouraged is a very human emotion that all of us confront at one time or another. The bible is filled with stories of great men and women of God who got very discouraged.

 

Moses got discouraged when he tried to help his Israelite brothers but got rejected and this led him to flee into the wilderness for 40 years (Exodus2). Throughout his years with the Israelites he faced many discouragements because of the stubbornness of the people he was leading.  David too, got discouraged many times through out his life and he cries out throughout the Psalms expressing the despair he felt in various situations.

 

The prophet Elijah is one of the greatest prophets who lived. God used this man to perform many great miracles and to literally call down rain after years of severe drought in Israel brought about by God due to the evil of King Ahab and Jezebels reign. Elijah was such a great man of God, that God did not let him die, but caught him up to heaven in a whirlwind. Yet even Elijah himself got severely discouraged at some point.

 

In 1 King 19, we read the story of Elijah’s moment of great discouragement. There is a lot to learn from this chapter about discouragement and how we can deal with it. After Elijah’s greatest victory, when he had called down rain after years of drought, the evil queen Jezebel, swore to kill Elijah and he got scared.

 

How did Elijah respond to discouragement and how can we learn from it in our times of discouragements.

 

 1.     Avoiding rash decisions

 When Elijah heard of Jezebel’s threats, his first response was to run away. Although Elijah knew what God had called him to do, when faced with discouragement his first instinct was to run away!  His fears took his eyes off of God and how big he was, to jezebel and how big her threat was. 

 

When most of us go through difficult times, it’s very easy to make rash decisions.  In the heat of discouragement, it’s very easy to run away, to walk away from an unhappy marriage, to escape to drugs and alcohol, to quit our jobs, to leave our churches, and abandon our ministries and businesses. What are you running away from?

 

 2.     Isolation is dangerous

When Elijah ran away, he got to the town Beersheba and left his servant there and then went off alone into wilderness. Once Elijah had isolated himself in the wilderness away from everybody, this great man of God begun to get even more discouraged and asked to die. In vs. 4 he says: “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” At this point it did not matter to Elijah that God had used him so mightily not too long ago, he was a man driven by discouragement.

It’s natural for most of us to isolate ourselves and run off to be on our own when discouraged. But the great deceiver Satan always uses that opportunity to minister to us and get us even more desperate. A discouraged person always has a void in their heart and given a chance the devil uses that void to fill in more negative and desperate thoughts. He knows that when we wallow in discouragement, we have set God aside and magnified our problems instead. It’s the best time for him to cause us to wallow even more in self pity and make senseless decisions.

 

When discouraged, that is the best time to be around fellowship, get ministered to, talk to people or hang around people to avoid dwelling on what is troubling us. Depression and suicidal thoughts often breed well in isolation. Discouragement can progress to depression and despair quite easily when we shut ourselves off from others in moments of weakness.

 

 3.      Do not make permanent decisions based on a temporary set back

 Now, after Elijah runs way and isolates himself in the wilderness, he starts to make some very crazy prayers and judgments. Elijah begins to tell God that he wants to die. He says he has had enough, that God should just take his life. God doesn’t do this; because he understands Elijah is a hurt and discouraged man.

 

When we are discouraged, it is never the right time to make any serious decisions. Pain is such a real and powerful emotion, that decisions made then, always seem right because we feel we have had enough. But often times, those decisions are never the right ones, because they are never sober minded.

 

In the midst of a broken relationship it’s easy to give up on relationships all together, and swear off love. When disappointed by people, it’s easy to rashly dismiss all people and vow never to trust anybody again. Many vows are made when people are discouraged which in retrospect have seemed unwise.

 

When Elijah asks God to kill him, he falls asleep and God sends an angel to minister to him. The angel tells Elijah to rise up and eat some bread and drink some water and Elijah does this and then goes to asleep again. The second time the angel tells him to arise and eat and in Vs 7, says this to him: “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” God understood what Elijah felt and he knew all he needed was to replenish his strength and rest for a while, before he even discussed his crazy prayer of death with him.

Sometimes, all we need in difficult times it to rest in the lord, replenish our strength by his word which is the bread of life. God’s word contains a lot of comforting, living words. Allowing him to minister to us in troubled times will build us up and fill the emptiness within. Praying and basking in his presence and pouring our hearts to him does a lot to strengthen our inner man and help us see things through his eyes and not through our wounded hearts.

 

4.      Seeing things in perspective- You are not alone

Once Elijah builds up his strength, he goes on to Horeb, the mountain of the lord to talk to God. And he cries out to God about how he is feeling:  Vs. 10: “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Elijah feels that all hope is lost since he feels he is the only prophet left and is about to be killed and that all the sons of Israel are evil. Yet, God goes on to tell him that there are solutions to these problems he feels are too hard. There is a prophet who will be his successor and confidant- Elisha, and a new king for Israel –Jehu- who is God’s choice and 7000 men in Israel who have not forsaken God’s covenant. God had everything sorted, but Elijah couldn’t see that when he wanted to die, when he thought it was all over. He did not have all the information, God did!

All Elijah needed was rest, and get a word from the lord. In his despair he kept telling God how he felt and making rash decisions, but once he was rested and ready to listen, God had a word for his situation. This word gave him strength to go on. Things no longer seemed so bad to Elijah after he listened and enquired from the lord. God still had work for him to do. It was not yet over for Elijah, as he originally thought.

In times of discouragement, it’s natural to feel hopeless, but we have to remember that God sees the entire picture. He may just be beginning when we think it’s over. We are human and we cannot see as he sees. Isaiah 55:9 says: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”. We cannot do without God. He is the best person to help us in our times of discouragement because he knows it all.

Like Elijah, we need to hear from God and get his direction when discouraged.

 

5.      Submitting to God’s will

In Vs 19 it says “So he departed from there…” Elijah finally submitted his will to God and departed to do what God had told him to do. Only in God’s will can we find contentment and peace. Once Elijah heard from God, fear left him and he continued on with his life’s mission with confidence.

God has a plan for us even amidst discouragement. It’s difficult to submit to his will in times of trouble because it feels too difficult to endure and easier to give up, but if we will hold on, he will come through for us.

The night Jesus was arrested he too faced severe discouragements in the garden of Gethsemane. In Mark 14:34 Jesus says to the disciples in the garden: “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death;” Even Jesus got discouraged. He was facing a difficult time, giving his life for the world. It wasn’t easy. But we can learn a lot by how Jesus handled this difficult time.

Jesus went to his father when discouraged, he did not run away. He cried to God saying “”Abba! Father! All things are possible for you; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what Your will.”(Mark 14:36)

Jesus submitted himself to his fathers will. He knew all things were possible with God, and he asked God if possible to spare him what was coming, but he insisted that God’s will be done. He knew God’s will was perfect even through pain. And because he endured the pain, the world now has a way of redemption.

If we will allow God to work in us his perfect will even through discouragements and difficult times, then we will be glad we endured patiently as we await his salvation. When Paul was in prison chained for the gospel, he understood that even though it wasn’t an easy time, he was in the will of God and all he wanted was for God to be glorified even through this difficult period, and for Gods purposes for his life (of preaching the gospel )be accomplished. He says this in Phil 1:12:  “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” and in Phil 1:20: “ I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death”.

God is with us even in difficulties and will see us through if we faint not.

Ps. 62:5-6, “My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken.”

John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”