Mt. Horeb Series

Mountain Moving Faith:

“Prescription for Depression”

1 Kings 19:1-21

Last week we looked at the challenge of Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal. We talked about the “Chains of Complacency.” We identified the chains that are keeping us bound to the launch pad of life, but we also looked at the engines that that needed to be ignited to sever those chains of complacency so that we can lift off into an incredible journey of faith. We know that this event took place on Mt. Carmel and God showed His divine power by sending fire down from heaven to engulf the alter that Elijah had made and God showed He was the only living God! You may think after a great spiritual victory like that everything would have been great for Elijah but we find him in the pit of depression and while on Mt. Horeb God begins to bring Elijah out of this depression. So today I want to talk to you about God’s prescription for depression! Have you ever seen a doctor write a prescription? Sometimes you can’t read it, can you? I’m glad pharmacists can read it but God’s prescription tonight is going to be so clear, anybody can read it!

Do you think you’ve had a bad day? I heard about a man who was injured while working on a job and this is how he filled out his accident report: “I was laying bricks for a wall at a project and when I finished the top of the wall, there were some extra bricks. Not wanting to drop the bricks and risk breaking them, I fixed a pulley out on a beam. I ran a rope through the pulley down to a barrel on the ground. I pulled the barrel up to the top of the wall and tied off the rope on the ground. I climbed up on the scaffold and I loaded the extra bricks into the wooden barrel. I then climbed down grabbed the rope and untied it. I was going to lower the barrel of bricks to the ground not realizing that the barrel of bricks was heavier than me! The barrel came down and I was jerked off the ground by the rope! I didn’t have the presence of mind to let go so I hung on and then it was too late on the way up I collided with the falling barrel of bricks and it gashed my shoulder. Then, when I was pulled to the top, I jammed my fingers into the pulley and when the barrel hit the ground, the bottom of the barrel broke the bricks fell out suddenly the barrel was lighter than me! So I went down and the barrel came up. On the way down I collided with the barrel again bruising my legs. I fell right on top of the pile of broken bricks causing multiple cuts and bruises. At that point I completely lost my cool and let go of the rope–that’s when the barrel fell on me and hit me on the head causing a cut that required 15 stitches!” Now that is a bad day!

When you have a bad day and you feel a little discouraged and a little depressed, God’s Word has something to say to you! If you have gone through times of depression, you’re not alone. Abraham Lincoln, Charles Spurgeon, Winston Churchill, and even the wife of Billy Graham, Ruth Bell Graham have all experienced deep periods of depression in their lives. How do you know if you are really depressed? Dr. Wayne Oates, a clinical psychiatrist out of Louisville, Kentucky, asks ten questions. He says if your answer is “yes” to seven of these ten questions, chances are you are someone who is depressed.

1. Have you suddenly or slowly lost all initiative in relating to other people?

2. Do you experience repeated crying spells that have no apparent cause?

3. Have you persistently over a period of weeks awakened suddenly and been unable to return to sleep for over an hour?

4. Do you awaken in the morning feeling tired and face the day with dread?

5. Do you feel pain of an unspecific, scattered kind an aching all over?

6. Do you find yourself thinking about your own death? Wishing life were over?

7. Do you breathe irregularly sigh repeatedly and feel heavy in the chest?

8. Do you distrust your own wisdom have trouble making decisions or feel generally helpless?

9. Do you find yourself irritable, cross without any reason?

10. Do you have trouble being enthusiastic about anything?

Dr. Wayne Oates says if you answered “yes” to seven or more of those questions, chances are you are clinically depressed. But I want to say again if you are depressed or if you go through periods of depression, don’t worry because even some of the greatest saints of God in the Bible went through periods of depression. That’s where we find Elijah. Right after this great victory on Mt. Carmel we see him going through a time of depression. Read 1 Kings 19:3-8.