Depression & Burnout Series

not to compare ourselves.

When you do,

you're setting yourself up to be depressed,

because there’s always somebody around,

who appears to be doing better than you.

And those are the people we compare with,

the people who are doing great,

we don’t compare ourselves to the person

who just got laid off,

divorced,

and lost their house.

No, we always compare with the people

who are doing better than us,

so we always end up feeling worse.

You want to get depressed?

Just wear yourself out,

shut others out,

focus on the negative,

and the 4th thing that you need to do,

if you want to get depressed is,

you need to

Forget God’s faithfulness,

which again is exactly what many of us do.

Think about all we saw God do in the life of Elijah,

supernatural protection and provision,

birds feeding him,

water from a brook during the draught,

raising the dead,

fire from Heaven.

But now Elijah is going,

“I’ve had enough. Take my life; I’m no better than my ancestors.”

He’s already forgotten all the amazing things God did…

But you know what,

I can understand where Elijah was.

Because I can look back at the faithfulness of God

in my own life.

all the times He was there for me,

and He provided,

He comforted,

He gave me strength,

I can look back at all that,

but then as soon as something comes along

that stresses me out,

I’ll forget all about his faithfulness,

forget all that he’s done for me in the past,

and start to get depressed.

Because its so easy to get depressed,

just follow the 4 easy steps:

Wear yourself out.

Shut people out.

Focus on the negative,

and Forget God’s faithfulness.

Now in case you’re already there, or on the way,

let’s talk about the answer,

What do you do when you’re starting to get burned out,

or maybe you’re already dealing with depression.

maybe you feel like things are hopeless?

And quite frankly,

some of us are there today…

God is speaking directly to you, today,

And if you’re not there,

you probably know somebody who is.

The first step when you’re facing burnout,

is to get control of your physical situation.

God sends an angel to Elijah,

verse 6

All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

God had Elijah sleep,

then eat, and then sleep again.

The first step is to rest your body.

Somebody said,

If you’ve been burning the candle at both ends,

then you’re not very bright.

Before God could do anything else with Elijah,

he knew the first step was that Elijah needed rest.

Now notice that God didn’t criticize Elijah.

He didn't give him a sermon, or a lecture,

God didn’t say,

“Just snap out of it, Elijah!

Don’t you know that Christians don’t get depressed,

What's wrong with you?

Get with the program.

No.

He didn't criticize him for being burnt out.

He had him sleep, then eat, then sleep some more,

because Elijah had been overdoing it.