Elijah - Defeater Of Depression Series

So, first, if you are feeling depressed, it is ok to sleep and rest and take a step back from things.

Notice that God did not say to Elijah at this point, just get over it.

You just need to have more faith and your depression will be gone.

He didn’t say, Elijah, you shouldn’t feel this way after all I have done for you and through you.

God didn’t do any of that to Elijah, and we shouldn’t do that as the first thing we do to others who are facing depression.

The first thing God did was care for Elijah’s physical needs.

That is what we should do as well.

Physically care for yourself first when facing depression.

Well, the next thing we see is that God asks Elijah to

Verbally Express the Problem

Slide

1 Kings 19:9b-10

And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

God asks Elijah to tell him what the problem is.

And Elijah tells Him

God, I have been working my butt off for you but nobody is listening. In fact they not only aren’t listening, they are rejecting you and killing your people.

I am now all alone, the only one left.

Now if you were listening to the beginning, you know that some of the things that Elijah is thinking is a problem is not completely true.

At the end, people were beginning to listen. They fell down and confessed that the Lord is God.

Also, Elijah was not the only one left, but he sure felt that way.

When we can express the problem verbally, it will give us a place to start in knowing what to deal with.

And often times, there are things that are not completely accurate that are causing us to feel depressed. When we verbally express those things, it will help us to deal with the truth of them at the appropriate time.

But notice that God doesn’t just correct Elijah’s false thinking here.

Understand sometimes that speaking the truth, even in love, immediately to someone is not always the thing that needs to be done.

Before we do that, they need to be in a place that they can receive that.

God recognizes that Elijah first needs something different.

If Elijah is going to defeat this depression, if we are going to defeat depression in our life, we need to

Spiritually Connect to the Lord

Slide

You need to be in the presence of the Lord. That is what Elijah needed.

1 Kings 19:11-13

11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."

Now, this is probably exactly what we don’t feel like doing. We just want to get under the covers in our bed and not be around anyone, including the Lord.

And for a time, this may be just the thing we need, not that the Lord departs from us, but we just need some time to rest as we have already discussed.

That could be our first priority.

But it can’t go on forever.

We need to use the strength from that rest to take some steps to overcome this and that means us coming into the presence of the Lord.