Articles
When You Are Discouraged
When You Are Discouraged
In 1 Kings 18, the Lord had worked through Elijah at Mount Carmel a great victory over false prophets in Israel. Hundreds of lying prophets had been proven false and then had been executed at the Brook Kishon. Upon hearing the news of the slaying of the prophets, wicked Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, was determined to kill Elijah within a day’s time. When Elijah heard of her plans, he ran for his life and asked God to take his life from him.
Elijah was discouraged. But he did not stay discouraged. Like Elijah, Christians sometimes become disheartened and discouraged. Elijah’s story offers to Christians godly instruction for the way out of discouragement.
In his discouragement, the Lord provided sustenance for him (1 Kings 19:5-8). In the past, the Lord provided for him at the Brook Cherith by way of ravens that were commanded by Him to feed him bread and meat (17:4-6). When the brook dried up, a most unlikely candidate cared for him, a widow of Zarephath. When we are discouraged, we can be strengthened in remembering God’s present care as well as His past care for us. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). Take heart in the prior and the continued goodness of God.
Elijah was discouraged while the focus of his thoughts remained on his undesirable circumstance and himself. Read his words in 1 Kings 19:10 where he tells of all he has done and yet he believes he is the only one left. As long as he focused on his own misery, he would remain discouraged. He needed to move his thinking away from himself and back to the Lord and the Lord’s work. When we are discouraged, we should stop thinking so much about self and think on others’ needs and on better things. “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:8-9).
Elijah’s way out of discouragement involved listening to the voice of the Lord. While still discouraged at Mt. Horeb, Elijah heard and saw the effects of the Lord passing by with a great wind, with broken rocks, in an earthquake, and with a fire. But the Lord was not in those things; the Lord was in “a still small voice” (19:12). Elijah listened to that still small voice of the Lord. As it was with Elijah, so it is with us. The voice – the word – of the Lord has truth and wisdom for us as well as direction out of discouragement. In times of discouragement we need to hear God so that we might have greater faith, for “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). Let us “go into the sanctuary of God” (Ps 73:17) in time of discouragement so that we might emerge encouraged.
Having heard God’s word, Elijah now needed to get busy doing what God directed him to do (19:15-17). This he did. Like Elijah, when we are discouraged, we need to hear the word of the Lord and then get busy doing it; we won’t stay discouraged. When Jesus taught His disciples to serve one another, he said, “if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (Jn 13:17). That’s no description of discouragement.
Elijah thought he was all alone, and this contributed to his discouragement. But what he thought was not true. “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him" (19:18). We are not alone. God has promised to never leave nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). And we have brethren in the world just as Peter spoke of in his day: “…knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Pet 5:9).
We should add that when we are discouraged we ought to draw closer to God in prayer and in worship. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
The devil wants Christians to become mired in discouragement and to stay there, becoming inactive in his kingdom. God wants us to “strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet” (Hebrews 12:12-13). We have good reason to press forward and ahead, and that is what is reserved the faithful for eternity: “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal 6:9).
