Torch, Summer 1986

4 by Daniel J. Estes P icture the Little Leaguer striking out with the bases loaded. Imagine the teenager whose boy– friend has just broken up with her. Think of the student failing a test. Or sympathize with the adult devas– tated by criticism. Discouragement finds all of us sooner or later. We hear ourselves crying , "I want to give up . I can't handle it. Enough!" We live in a society of discouraged people. Many contend with serious discouragement which may lead to depression, a leading mental health problem in the United States. The question all around us is, "How can I keep going when I feel like giving up?" ;For the Christian, the issue is even more perplexing. The Christian battling discouragement asks, "Where is the abundant life that Jesus promised? Is my relationship with God good only for the sweet bye-and-bye or can it also sustain me in the bitter here-and-now?" In I Kings 19, we trace the steps of Elijah as he went from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. We see the prophet of God who had just come off the mountaintop, ~ut was soon in the pits of despair. We hear the sob of a whiner, not the shout of a winner. Through this experience Elijah learned, and we too can learn, how to defeat discour– agement. Elijah is a pattern of how to keep going when we feel like giving up. 1. Elijah giving up Elijah had just completed one of the most exhausting and exhilarating days of his life. In I Kings 18 we learn that he had confronted King Ahab and all the prophets of Baal. The courageous prophet had moved the nation oflsrael to acknowledge, "The LORD, He is God" (I Kings 18:39) . It appears that even the wicked Ahab was softened by the scene. But not Ahab's wife Jezebel. ELIJAH: Down But Not Out Without hesitating or beating around the bush, she issued Elijah an ul– timatum which said in effect, "Get out of town today or you will be dead tomorrow" (I Kings 19:2). It's not hard to imagine Elijah's re– sponse . He did what almost anyone would have done . He ran . In fact , he fled through Israel, down the length of Judah , and then into the desert for a day before he flopped down under a juniper tree 80 miles or more from home . Elijah had expected a national revival, but he got only a personal reversal . His disappointment led him to discouragement, and discour– agement plunged him into despair. He was totally exhausted . Elijah had given up . Psychiatrists have shown that depression can be rooted in the physical, the spiritual, or the psychological areas of life . In I Kings 19:5-21, God healed Elijah at each of these problem points. Elijah's challenges may have been too much for him, but they weren ' t too much for the Lord. Even though he had given up on himself, the Lord had not given up on Elijah . 2. Elijah resting up In verses 5-7, the Lord first brought physical healing to Elijah. It has been said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." God gave the prophet a time for extended rest and refreshment to fortify his body and to counteract his depression .