A Spiritual Drop-Out (The Victim Of Discouragement)

A SPIRITUAL DROP OUT- THE VICTIM OF DISCOURAGEMENT

Take your Bibles again and turned to 1st Kings 19:1–12

From a spiritual point of view the early verses of 1st Kings is one of the saddest stories and all the word of God.

Here… One of the most fearless and faithful prophets of all time flees for his life in response to a threat of harm by a wicked woman.

Elijah… the Great worker of miracles and mover of man becomes a spiritual drop out, because of

deep discouragement AND DESPAIR FOR his life.

IN verse 4 we are told that Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, it is enough. Now O LORD take away my life for I am no better than my father’s.

Some Time Ago As I Was Praying for a Discouraged Backslidden Friend These Tragic Words of Spiritual Despair Cause Me to Realize As Never before That None of Us Are Exempt from Discouragement. At One Time or Another… All of Us Have Probably Reacted like Elijah.

So Longer I Live… And the More I Study Human Nature… The More I’m Convinced That the Truly Honest Soul Is the One Who Admits This Common Weakness… And Acknowledges His Daily Dependence on Divine Grace for Spiritual Victory.

Therefore since We Are All Subject to This Common Spiritual Enemy… I Suspect That Some Here Today Are Discouraged And like Elijah Someone May Be on the Verge or Brink of Spiritual Despair.

Now I’m Not Talking about Past Discouragement and Defeat But of a Present Temptation To Give up Or Drop out And Call It Quits.

And the Reason I Am so Sure That, at This Very Moment, Someone May Be Wrestling with This Problem, Is Because Bible History And Human Experience Records the Tragedies Of large Numbers of Great and Good Man Who Gave up In Spiritual Despair.

So Although No One Is Totally Exempt from This, and Tendency… Discouragement Should Never Lead To Despair for the Christian.

The Apostle Paul Was Often Faced with Discouragement, And Despair-

2 Corinthians 4:8-11 8We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;10Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.11For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

My Friend… There Is Nothing Abnormal Or Unspiritual about You If You Have More Than Your Share of This Dreadful Tendency…

But Surely It Is A grievous Sin To Let Discouragement Develop into Despair And Defeat And Rob Us Of Our Usefulness for God.

In This Familiar Chapter The Bible Records a Sad and Tragic Experience In the Life of a Mighty Man of God.

1st of All Consider With Me:

Where Discouragement And Despair Is Found?

Contrary to All but One Might Imagine… Despair Has Come in the Life Experience of a Prophet And Spiritual Giant.

None of Us Ever Seen to Be Too Surprised When Discouragement and Despair Comes to a Newborn Babe in Christ… Or to Someone Who Is Neither Mentally or Spiritually Strong…

But When defeat Comes to a Preacher or Prophet Or Some Renowned National Spiritual Leader… We All Are Shocked And Stunned with Surprise! Such Was the Case Here!

Elijah Was Not an Unstable Emotional and Erratic Man. In Fact He Was One of the Greatest Spiritual Giants of All Time.

In Fact This Courageous Prophet Had Just Achieved One of the Most Remarkable Victories Ever Recorded in the Bible… But for Some Strange Reason He Loses His Cool and his courage and Becomes a Spiritual Dropout.

You Say Well Why Then Is Such a Story Recorded?

Such a Story Is Recorded to Remind Us That the Dark Hours of Discouragement and Loneliness in the Place of Leadership Is not Uncommon Or Unknown.

In Fact Both Scripture And Christian Biography bear Ample Testimony That, At One Time or Another, All Mankind Is Subject to This Dreadful Malady.

Listen to the Psalmist in Psalms 55:6

Do You Not Detect Here The Faint but Definite Expression of Fear and Discouragement… And a Desire to Get Away from It All?

My Friend Could It Be That This Is the Condition of Your Troubled Weary Heart Today?

Listen to the Prophet -Jeremiah 9:2 -oh that i had A Lodging Place That I Might Leave My People and Go from Them

Of Course No Honest Pastor Would Deny That He Does Occasionally Get Discouraged. In Fact If He Is Completely Honest… He Could Almost Wish to Get Away from It All.