Overcoming Discouragement and Depression

No, brethren, discouragement seems to strike us all from time to time. And it is a problem that we see is very prevalent in our society today. We have unemployment rates of 2.9 or 10.9 or 10.2 percent. We'll get that right. As of the present, we have thousands and hundreds of thousands of people losing their homes, going into bankruptcy. We find that many people are seeking help mentally. It's estimated that sometimes upwards to 50 percent of hospital beds are occupied by people struggling with mental challenges and problems. We find that despondency, depression, discouragement, all of these seem to afflict more and more people in our society. Depression itself can be very debilitating and a horrific problem. Now what I'm talking about is different from what I would characterize as chronic depression or mental disorders. Those are things that are treated on a little different level. But most of us go through, at time, some type of discouragement or depression. We go through this periodically. And it's primarily when we're faced with a severe test or severe trial. We find that the world of medicine, the world of science, has come up with psychology and psychiatric branches to help deal with these. Psychology is the science of the mind and behavior. And so they try to help people what they would consider their mind and how they behave. Psychiatric branch is a branch of medicine that deals with mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders. And so we find that all of these are very prevalent today. And yet here we are as members of God's church. And God has called us to live a certain way of life. And we still struggle with some of these from time to time. Does God understand what we're going through? Does He understand what you and I are faced with? Does He understand us when we become greatly discouraged or despondent, upset? What does He do to help us? How does He help us? Why do we occasionally have these type of problems anyway? Well, we want to take a look at that today. Let me start by mentioning there was a group of psychiatric students who were in a college class. And one day their professor wanted to discuss and prove a point to them. He said, what we're going to talk about today are the emotional extremes, you know, going from one extreme to another that many mentally disturbed people go through. For example, he asked one student, what is the opposite of joy? And the student said sadness. And then he asked a young lady, what's the opposite of depression? And she said, elation. Turning to a young man from Texas, he asked, what is the opposite of woe? Well, now, the Texan replies, I suppose the opposite of woe would be giddy up. I think some of you were already down the road with that one.

But you find that people tend to go from one extreme to another when it comes to emotions. And I think we've all lived in that world and been faced with that. Turn to Exodus chapter 3. We're going to begin there. You'll find that almost any night while watching television, you can see repeated commercials advertising medication for depression. And the message is, see your doctor and he will give you a pill. And if you're depressed, you're discouraged, then the medical profession solution is take a pill. And so supposedly, you know, you can go in and say, Doc, I saw this commercial. They said that if I'm discouraged or depressed or down, you'll give me this pill and I'll feel better. And so the doctor says, okay, here's your pill. Is that the way it works? When you look at some of the more popular brand name antidepressant drugs, you know, the list goes on and on and on. Things like Prozac, Luvok, Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro, Clexa, Welverton, E4X, or E4X, Cymbalta. And then you have things like Remeron, Desirail, Zertone, you know, you can go on and on and on. Now, these are things that you see commercials on and the, obviously, the advertisers are trying to push these on people. Now, right along with the ad comes what? Side effects. So what are some of the side effects to all this? Well, just to name a few. Nausea, anxiety, decreased sex drive, weight gain or weight loss, sweating, fatigue, diarrhea, headaches, nervousness, insomnia, restlessness, dizziness, tremors, sleepiness, dry mouth, constipation, blurred vision. So, you know, if you want to help the other, you have all of these side effects that possibly will be there. Depression and anxiety are very real problems that far too many people in the world and in God's church suffer from. It can come from many sources. In God's leaders of the past, the men that we look up to who are there as examples in the Scriptures were not immune to these problems. They too face a lot of the problems that we're talking about. Let's go back again to Exodus chapter 3 and let's look at Moses' calling where God began to deal with Moses. We all know the story of Moses. His mother saved his life by hiding him from Pharaoh's decree when Pharaoh had the baby boys killed. Now, he killed an Egyptian later on, fled to the wilderness of Midian. Then he bumped into a burning bush, and at the burning bush, he met God. Now, you just imagine yourself. 40 years you lived in the lap of luxury in Egypt. 40 years you're wandering around the desert, herding sheep. Then one day you come across a burning bush, and you watch it, and it doesn't go out, and it's still burning, and it's burning. Finally, you say, well, I think I'll turn aside here and see what's up with this bush. Then someone starts talking to you who says he's God. Now, would you necessarily say, okay, you're God? And just immediately snap to what he said. Well, we don't find Moses doing that, do we? In verse 9 here, Exodus 3 and verse 9, it says, Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up to me, God says. I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

Now, to begin with, Moses was not thrilled with this idea. He began to argue with God. What do you mean? Verse 11, Moses said to God, well, who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh, and I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. So, he said, I will certainly be with you, and God replies to him. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. So, God said, I'll go with you, don't have to worry, I'll be with you, I'll take care of things. But Moses puts up another argument.

He starts saying, well, what if they don't believe me? Why would they believe me? And, you know, that could be... one can make that argument. They haven't seen Moses in 40 years. He comes back, and God sent me to deliver you. So, he says, why would they believe me? Well, in verse 13, then Moses said to God, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel, and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say, what is his name? What shall I say to them? Who am I going to say? Sent me. And God said to Moses, I am whom I am? And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent you. God then gives Moses all the guidelines of the responsibility through the end of the chapter. He tells him what he wants him to do, how to do it, and what he's going to do for him, all of this.

The problem is, Moses still is not convinced. Notice now in chapter 4 in verse 1. Then Moses answered and said, but suppose they will not believe me, or listen to my voice. Suppose they say, the Lord has not appeared unto you. So God hasn't come and talked to you.

Then we have a discussion from God, where God tells him, see this rod, you throw it down, it'll become a serpent. Pick it up, it becomes a rod again. I'll do that. See your hand? It becomes leprous. Now, it's not leprous. And then God goes on to say, if they still won't believe you, I'll turn water to blood on the sand right in front of you. And so God says, look, I'll perform these miracles, and they will be able to know that truly I'm with you. But Moses still wasn't buying it. He saw the miracles here, but he still wasn't convinced. So in verse 10, Exodus 4, Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent. Neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech, slow of tongue. So the Lord said, well, who's made man's mouth? And who's made the mute to death, the seen, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now, therefore go, and I'll be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. Now, you would think Moses would be jumping up and down by now. Oh, goody! God's going to help me. I've had this problem in speaking. Now God's going to take care of it. So I don't have to worry anymore. No, that wasn't his approach, verse 13. But he said, O Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send. Whoever else you want to send, don't just limit the choice to me here. Whoever you want to send, let them go. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. Look, he's coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Now verse 15, Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people, and he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall do the signs. So God told him, look, you know, this is what I'll do for you. Now I want you to notice what God did here.

God didn't quit working with Moses because of his reluctance or his anxiety or even his depression. Moses was handpicked by God for this job. He was chosen by God to do this. Now he was reluctant. He held back. He had anxiety. He didn't think he could do the job. He couldn't see where he was qualified to do it. And yet God said, look, I'll go with you. I will be the one to help you and to guide you and direct you. Now when God calls us, brethren, he never promises us that the way is going to be easy. When you were counseled for baptism, did the minister sit down and tell you, now the moment you're baptized, all your problems go away. You'll have no more trials, no more tests, no more difficulties. Everything will be great. You'll prosper. You'll be in good health. And I will be with you to the day you die, and there will be no difficulties. Is that what the minister told you? Or did he not quote Luke 14 and talk about how you have to put God first, how you have to make a commitment, and that you and I must be willing, no matter what comes up, to obey God, to serve Him? Well, we find that God shows that the way that he has called us to live isn't always the easiest way. Let's notice over here in Numbers 21, beginning in verse 4, what God says. And here's the example of ancient Israel. Remember, God was leading Israel through his handpicked, chosen servant, Moses, to the Promised Land. Now, God is leading us to the Promised Land today also. The Promised Land, in this case, is the kingdom of God, as Hebrews 3 and 4 show. We're bound for the Promised Land, and we're being led by Jesus Christ, by God the Father. But notice the problem with the Israelites. It says, they journeyed from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. In the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.

And as people spoke against God and against Moses, they complained, they grumbled, they cried. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food nor water, and our soul loaves this worthless bread. They weren't thankful for what God had given them. They liked the manna, this worthless bread. They turned their nose up at it. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Now, in verse 7, the people then began to say, Uh-oh, we've sinned. Forgive us. Ask God to intervene on our behalf. They became discouraged because of the way. Forty years, they wandered in the wilderness. Forty years, they ate manna. They were exposed to the sun, to the weather. They would stop. There would not be any trees. They would stop. There would not be any water. They wanted meat. So they went through all of these trials. Now, God has called us to be in His kingdom. You and I face trials, difficulties, and problems all the time. Sometimes we become discouraged because the way seems so tough. The problem seemed to overwhelm us. You go to the feast. You come back to the feast. You lose your job. You wreck your car. You get sick. And you begin to think, Where's God in all of this? Why is all of this happening to me? And it's easy for us to begin to doubt God and begin to become discouraged. But as Hebrews 13, verse 5, tells us, that as we progress along this way, God makes certain promises to us. And one of them is certainly outlined here, Hebrews 13 and verse 5. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. It's Hebrews 13, 5. God says He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will always be with us. And God was always with the Israelites. And even though they couldn't see where the water was going to come from, or how God was going to intervene on their behalf, God certainly did. Now, let's go back to the book of Numbers again, Numbers 11.

Numbers 11. And let's keep in mind that, again, we'll pick up the story here of Moses, that this is one of the greatest leaders of all time. When you look through the Bible, and it begins to list the leaders, who do you find? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David. These are the men that are held up. And yet, here was a man handpicked by God, and he still got discouraged. He was given promises by God. God said, look, I will do this. I'll perform this miracle. You use that rod and this river will turn to blood. I'll bring all kinds of plagues upon Egypt. And yet, there were times when he was hit by deep depression. And he became discouraged. Now, here in chapter 11, we get to the second year, after having led the children of Israel out of Egypt, the people kept complaining. They kept grumbling and griping against him.

And I want you to notice what it says here. Beginning in verse 11. Chapter 11, verse 11, the book of Numbers. So Moses said to the Lord, Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? So he says, it's too great. I can't handle it.

Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom? As a guardian carries a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers, where am I to get meat to give to these people? For they weep all over me, saying, Give us meat that we eat. In verse 14, he says, I am not able to bear all these people alone. He said, Look God, I can't do it because the burden is too heavy for me.

And then in verse 15, If you treat me like this, please kill me.

This is the way you're going to treat me. Kill me.

It says, Kill me here and now, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.

Now, are we not glad that God didn't answer that prayer? I mean, here was a prayer that Moses uttered. God did not answer it. His despair got so bad that, you know, he became even suicidal in his thoughts. And so you find that the servants of God through the years have been faced with deep problems and trials and discouragement. They're not unlike us today. Now, Moses wasn't the only one, as we find in Scripture. Let's go over to Joshua, the seventh chapter, the book of Joshua. And we'll begin here in chapter seven. We know that Moses was a great leader, yet Joshua is probably the greatest general that Israel had. He was also handpicked by God. So this is not a man who just sort of wondered in, and I'll take over. No, he was handpicked by God to be the successor of Moses, to lead Israel into the Promised Land. And yet, Joshua was a result of the people not doing what God had instructed, started losing battles. Instead of winning, then as God had originally promised, they were defeated. Remember, they had crossed the Jordan. They had gone to Jericho. Jericho had fallen. Rahab and her household had been spared. So they had a high hand now. Now, they went down to a much smaller city, AI, and they were defeated. And Joshua just simply could not understand this. He was faced with the situation that many times we are. We don't understand why. Sometimes we're faced with a certain difficulty. Let's notice in verse 6, Joshua chapter 7.

And verse 6, Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the Ark of the Lord until evening. He and the elders of Israel, they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us in the hands of the Amorites to destroy us, all that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan? And he said, We would have been happy to just stay over there. We didn't have to cross over Jordan. And look what's going on now.

He became disheartened, and he felt like quitting. He was disheartened by the outcome. He couldn't see. God had made these promises to drive out the nations that God would go before them and fight. And yet here they'd been defeated. Now, he was overlooking one little problem. And that is, the defeat at A.I. wasn't God's fault. It was the people's fault. Ancient, if you'll remember here, took some of the treasures out of A.I. And God had absolutely forbidden them to do so. He had taken it, and he hid it. And so, therefore, he sinned. And God pointed out that there were people in the midst of Israel who were sinning, and that as a result, this problem had occurred.

Now, brethren, when you apply this to us today, many times, our personal sins can cause us to get discouraged.

Remember Isaiah 59, verse 2, where it says, Your sins have separated you from your God so that He will not hear you. Isaiah 59, too.

There are times we sin, and we struggle with the problem. How many of us have had sometimes problems that we have struggled with for years? We try to overcome a certain flaw in our character, certain habit, certain weakness, and we find we keep succumbing to it or falling to it. And one day, we think we're on top of it. We've overcome it. And then, a little later on, we find we give into it again. And we struggle with it. And so, we become discouraged because of our sins and our weaknesses. And there's not one of us sitting here today who do not have certain weaknesses that we find that we're constantly faced with and that we struggle with. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12.

And you'll notice here, talking about the Old Testament examples, first part of this chapter, we're told, "...therefore, let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall." No temptation is overtaking you, except such as is common to man. So, let's realize the problems, the difficulties that we go through, the hardships we face, the trials we're confronted with. We're all confronted with these. They're common to mankind. But we find God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation, with the trial, with the test, will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So, God says He will provide the way. He will help us, and we will be able to bear it. But many times we become discouraged because of our own weaknesses, our own faults, our own sins. Have you ever felt unworthy to even approach God? There have been times that you got down to pray, and you thought, well, I've prayed dozens of times about this. And you feel like, God certainly won't hear me this time. And we can develop a defeatist attitude because of our sins, our weaknesses, and our frailties. And yet, brethren, God says that He will be there. He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we're able to handle, and He'll make a way of escape.

Now, let's go over to James 5, because we have another example to look at. James 5, verse 17.

Here is a man that you might say was someone just like us.

James 5, verse 17.

Now, you can think of Joshua and Moses, all the training, the background they had. You know, they seem to just sort of walk on water almost. But here was a man, the Bible says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. So here's a man just like us, a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain. It did not rain on the land for three and a half, or three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Now, here was a man just like us, and I want you to notice his example. Let's go back to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings chapter 19.

And this is sort of a mixed story, a bizarre story in one sense, an example, because Elijah had just gotten through preaching one of the most powerful sermons recorded in the Bible, one of the greatest sermons of his life. He had confronted 400 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and exposed them as false prophets. And because of Elijah's faith and obedience to God, God literally sent fire down out of heaven to consume the sacrifices. You remember the prophets of Baal put their sacrifice out, spread their wood. They jumped up and down. They danced around. They cut themselves. They lanced themselves. They prayed. They pleaded. Nothing happened. And then Elijah, in a very short prayer, asked God to burn up the sacrifice. Not only that, he dumped barrels of water on it. And God came down and licked up the sacrifice, the altar, the water, everything, and showed that he was God. God instructed Elijah to destroy all the prophets of Baal by the sword. God then guided through Elijah. And we know later on, rain was prophesied after three years of drought, brought by God. God worked powerful miracles through him. You would think that Elijah would strive around or stride around thinking, God's with me. I'm his servant. And any problem, any difficulty that would come up, he would say, I can handle this. God's with me. I know he can help me. Well, let's notice here in 1 Kings 19, verse 1.

I want you to pay attention to how quickly Elijah goes from being on a high to deep, deep discouragement.

In verse 1, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. Also, how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

That's funny. He had no problem with Ahab or the prophets of Baal, but along comes Jezebel. And, you know, she frightened him. The threat of wicked Jezebel really did a job on Elijah. And I want you to notice what happened. Verse 3.

Elijah said, Okay, Jezebel, you meet me tomorrow, and we'll see who's God's servant. You just come on down. He didn't say that, did he? That's what he should have said, but let's notice in verse 3. When he saw that, he arose and ran for his life. The jig's up. She's after me. She's going to kill me. And he ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, left his servant there.

Now, he didn't want anybody to know where he was, so, okay, he drops his servant off. And by himself, on a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die.

So here again, we have a servant of God saying, I want to die. This is too much for me.

And he said, it's enough now, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my father. Now, why does he have these thoughts after all of the powerful intervention by God and how God had helped him? Again, you would think that he'd be on a high, but he has anxiety. He's discouraged. You could even say he was depressed. Why would a man who has preached such an impassionate sermon as he did in the past experience some of the most powerful displays of God's intervention, why would he suddenly be crippled by fear, by hopelessness, and despair? What had happened? What had gone wrong? He would have run to a desolate corner of the earth and seek to die.

Why did he do that?

There are probably all kinds of reasons, but the fact is he did.

And we know he did. Now, what this tells us that even the most dynamic servants of God can suffer from discouragement and despondency and can become depressed.

What you find is not necessarily a mark of a lack of faith. It's not necessarily the mark of an immoral lifestyle. Well, Elijah was the man of God in his day. He was the servant of God. He was the one that God was working through. But how he got so far down into the depths of despair is something that we want to take a look at. God didn't leave him there.

God didn't say, Well, I'm sorry, Elijah. I'd like to help you, but Prozac hasn't been invented yet. And I can't give you anything to help you. So you're going to have to work this out on your own. I want you to notice what God did to help Elijah. Number one, God recognized that Elijah's depression was not an imaginary problem. It was a problem. It was a problem for him.

Elijah's hopelessness was real. It was tangible. It wasn't just an imaginary problem. God didn't come down and say, Okay, Elijah, shape up. Get a hold of yourself. This is a simple attitude. You need more faith. Buckle up. Stiff up or lit. Have a drink. God didn't come down and tell him all of those things. How many times when you've gone through a problem and somebody said, Well, all you need to do is just have a stiff upper lip. Or, you know, just tough it out. They tried to perhaps encourage you in that way. Well, God didn't do that. God didn't treat him roughly. God didn't come down and slap him around, knock him over, say, Get a hold of yourself, Elijah. Don't you remember what I've done? Notice in verse 5, 1 Kings 19, Then he lay and slept under a broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, Rise and eat! Then he looked, and thereby his head was a cake baked on coals in the jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he rose and ate and drank, and he went on the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights, as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

So the answer to Elijah's prayer, Let me die, God just let him sleep.

One of the major outcomes of depression, sometimes people come to be depressed, they just want to sleep, they want to rest, they don't have any desire to get up and do much. Then God sent him off in the desert on a hike 40 days, 40 nights. And that's quite a long journey. And all this time, you don't find where God said anything to Elijah. He just didn't offer him any counsel at this point. So here is at least 40, 50 days, after all this happened. God didn't set Elijah down and have a face-to-face talk with him immediately. He allowed the situation to continue for a while. Now, were there some lessons that God wanted Elijah to learn? Was there something that he was supposed to see in all of this? He was given time to rest, he was given time to think. But eventually, God did deal with Elijah's depression. And I want you to notice the second thing that God did with Elijah. God gave Elijah a safe place to recover, rest, and think about what he was going through. He was out here in Horeb. He was at a cave, and he didn't have to fear about Jezebel. Nobody knew where he was. He was just there.

Now, I think it points out a principle that you can extrapolate from this. And when you and I are going through great discouragement, we need help. We need somebody who can be there to care for us, to help us. Now, unbeknownst maybe to Elijah, God had cared for him. He had sent an angel, prepared food for him. He provided a place for him to rest. And what you find, there are times when we're going through discouragement that we just need somebody to come up, put their arm around you, and say, I care for you. I know you're going through a big trial here. We're praying for you. Is there anything that we can do? And not being judgmental. Remember Job's friends? Well, you got to be doing something wrong, Job. Did you neglect the widows? Did you do this? Did you forget the tithe? I bet you beat your cows. You probably mistreat your children. You're doing something wrong. They kept trying to judge him and criticize him. Well, that wasn't what Job needed. And Job was another one because of the severe trial that was brought upon him. That he was... Well, he got down to where he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what the answer was. Let's turn over to Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

The Bible talks about how important it is to have others around you, especially those who care for you. And let's notice, beginning in verse 9, Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse 9, the principle is brought out here along this line. It says, "...who are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor? For if they fall, one will lift up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls. For he has no one to help him up." You and I need each other. We need encouragement. Elijah thought he was alone.

He didn't think there was anybody else around. He thought he was the only one serving God, obeying God, fearing God. So therefore, he looked at it from that point of view. Verse 11, again, "...if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not easily broken." So we see the principle where two can help, or another person can help an individual. Does God have care and concern for us? Does he realize our frailties? Does God understand that you are a human being? You have weaknesses? Well, let's go back to Psalm 103, beginning in verse 8.

Psalm 103, verse 8, where we read about God's approach to us. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. Verse 10, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Notice verse 13, As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.

God knows we're dust. He knows we're human. He knows we have frailties. Brethren, we need to realize this. That you and I are handpicked by God, just like Moses and Joshua were. We are the handpicked ones of God.

John 644 says, No man can come unto the Son unless the Father draws him. God has to call us. He has to draw us. God is the one who puts us in his church. And by the very fact that he has called us, that he's working in and through us, God doesn't, whenever we fall, make a mistake, just say, Okay, that's it. I'm through with this individual. We find that's not the way God dealt with his servants of old. He continued to work with them and help them. And so we need to be around others who can be a real help. And be a potential lifesaver. And God is there. He knows us. And the fact that God called you and me, he knew your weaknesses before he called you. You think God didn't know our problems, our difficulties, our frame of mind, our references, our backgrounds, all of this before he called us into his church? And yet he still called us. And the reason he called us, the very fact that you're sitting here, is proof that God knows you can make it. That he wants you to make it. That he's there to help. And he's not there to push you away. Let's go on here, turning back to 1 Kings 19 again.

And in verse 9, notice what happened here with Elijah. Man head of nature just like us. Says, there he went into a cave, spent the night in that place, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? Why are you here? Why aren't you back in Jerusalem? Why aren't you back in Judea? What are you doing here?

Well, that brings us to a third thing that God did with him. God had Elijah tell him, tell God, what he thought the problem was. So, Elijah tells God, well, look, verse 10. I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel, that forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. I'm the only one left. Have you ever felt, here I am, you know, I live over here in Hamilton County, Sequoachie, Bradley, Walker, you know, wherever it might be. I'm one of the few people who are obeying God and living in this county, and I've sought God. I've striven to obey Him. I do what He tells me, and I still have these problems. You begin to wonder why, and you begin to doubt. Well, here he is. He's saying, I'm left alone, and they're out there trying to kill me. She's got the posse out, and the army's searching for me. Then he said, verse 11, Go out, stand on the mountain before the Lord, behold, the Lord passes by, in a great, strong wind, tore the mountain and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in an earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, after the fire a small, still voice. So, after God displayed His power to Elijah and reminded, yeah, I'm still here, I still have power, I haven't lost it, He came back to him in a small, still voice.

And He asked Elijah again, what's the problem? He wanted him to articulate his beliefs and his feelings. So verse 13, so it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, Look, I've been very zealous for the Lord, God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

Now, I want you to notice in what he says here, hidden in the midst of this statement, is actually an accusation by Elijah. Elijah said, I've been beating my head against the wall for you, God. I've been doing everything you've told me. I've been zealous, and everything seems to be falling apart around me. Why? Why all these difficulties? What have you been doing, God? Why haven't you helped me? Why didn't you intervene? Why didn't Jezebel just fall down dead?

He begins to reason in this way. And so finally, God has to correct Elijah's thinking. And he tells Elijah what? You're not the only one left. You're not the lone dog out here, he tells him. In verse 18, God says, yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal. Every mouth that has not kissed him. Now, Elijah thought God wasn't doing anything. And when God approached Elijah here, he told him, Look, I'm just getting started. You see, brethren, many times we go through something, and we don't know what God is working out behind the scenes. How often have we been faced with a trial or a test? And we couldn't see a solution. And then one day, boom, there is a solution. And we realize that God has intervened on our behalf. He's allowed us to go through the trial or the test. He's developed our faith. He's developed our character. He's developed our backbone, but he wants us to learn to depend upon him. And so God told him, Look, I'm just really getting started here. Notice in verse 15 what he says. The Lord said, You go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria, and also you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimschai as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel, Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. And it shall be that whoever escapes of the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. Whoever escapes of the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. So what do we find here? God had some big plans for Elijah. He just didn't know it. And God said, Look, while you've been pitting yourself and patting yourself on the back. Now I'm the last one around. Let me tell you, I've been working with 7,000 other people. And God, brethren, may be working with tens of thousands of people that we have no knowledge of, because we're so mopek in our approach, in our vision, in what we think, what we see. And we don't know how God is reaching out to this world and what God intends to do. And so sometimes we begin to doubt God. Now, at last God did something. He gave Elijah something to do.

You've got to get back to being busy and do something constructive. Brethren, whenever we begin to feel down and we feel despondent, you know what you need to do? You need to study the Word of God even more, because in here are the promises of God. And here are the examples of God. In fact, while you're feeling good, I suggest that you write down chapters that you find in the Bible that are very encouraging to you, that are uplifting, that are powerful, that show you God's intervention. Write down scriptures that encourage you, that show the promises of God. And any time that you find that you begin to become discouraged, go back and read those. Go back and read Hebrews 11. There may be particular books of the Bible that you want to read and study and go over, showing how God intervened on the behalf of His people. The book of Exodus is that way where God brought Israel out of Egypt and to realize that God is bringing us out of this world, and we're headed to the Promised Land. Likewise. So, we've got to spend a little more time in prayer. Likewise. So, God gives us strength. We're encouraged through His Word. We receive strength through prayer. And the one thing that we tend to do when we become despondent or discouraged in this way, we quit those things. We give up. And we're like, Elijah, we run for it. We get away from the things that we need to be doing, which is to be close to God. If Elijah had gone over to the temple or, you know, gone somewhere and asked God to intervene on His behalf, prayed, asked God to take care of Jezebel, then God would have revealed something else for Him to do. What God told Elijah is, don't worry, I've got it all under control. And this is what I want you to do. See, God is doing something while we're going through our trials. We may not know what it is. We may not see it, but God is beginning to work things out, and they will come to light.

When the Allied troops were making their way across Europe into Germany, and they were meeting the German army in resistance, they came across a bombed-out building that had this inscription scrawled on the basement wall. It said, believe in the sun, even when it's not shining. If you can't see the sun, do you believe it's not there?

Well, of course we know it's there. I believe in love, even when it's not shown. And I believe in God, even when He doesn't speak. See, God doesn't always come and give us the answer immediately, does He? He wants us to depend upon Him. When a person is depressed, they don't think God is doing much of anything because they can't see God's hand. They have no hope, no confidence. No confidence. God isn't easily seen under those circumstances. It's easy for us to look around at the world, society around us, the unconverted, see people prospering, seeing people being taken care of.

We're losing our house, we're losing our job, we're barely able to put food on the table, and we wonder what's going on here. Let's go back to Psalm 73 and verse 1. Psalm 73 and verse 1, because we have here the example of David. Because David fell into that trap once. And you read David's example as you go through the book of Psalms. And one of the greatest books to read when we're going through this type of difficulty is to read Psalms. Here's David, man after God's own heart, and yet how many Psalms start out? How long, O Lord? When are You going to help me? When are You going to intervene?

And he cries to God. And now always at the end, you know, there's God's intervention and He realizes. Let's notice verse 1. Truly God is good to Israel, and to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So you see the wicked, they don't seem to have problems. They've got the big mansion. Good job. Nice cars, good clothes, good food, eat out at the best restaurants, you know, all of these things. But verse 12, behold, he says, these are the ungodly who are always at ease. They increase in riches.

Surely, he said, I have cleansed my heart in vain. Isn't that what Elijah just said? Look, I've been doing this, you don't take notice. And David said, I cleansed my heart in vain. What good is it that I go and I repent of my sins? What good is it that I strive to obey you and keep your laws and wash my hands in innocence? For all day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning. If I said I will speak thus, behold, I would have been untrue to the generations of your children.

When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me. Until, he said, I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood therein. And so when he understood God's plan, he got his mind back on the Bible, the sanctuary of God. When we come together, we hear sermons, we read the Word of God, we talk to one another of light mind, we encourage each other. Then you find that God is there with us. Sometimes someone else's blessing can cause us to become discouraged because we haven't received the blessing or our blessing isn't as big as theirs. And we think, well, I've done more in the church.

I've been around longer. I've worked harder. I know these people have certain problems. I deserve it more than they do. Why am I not being taken care of? We've all tithed faithfully, and I'm not being blessed. I've been absolutely faithful in keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and yet I lost my job. I just don't understand why. We get down, we begin to question God, we question His motives, where He's coming from. And sometimes we might even go as far as to question, is there a God?

Is He real? Will He intervene? And a person in depression needs to realize, just as Elijah did, that as God is working in their lives, even though they can't see Him. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about also here in conclusion. Several years ago, there was an experiment carried out on endurance at the University of California at Berkeley.

The experiment involved Norwegian field rats. Now, I'm not calling all of us rats, but the experiment involved rats. They were put in a tub of water where they were forced to swim until they grew exhausted and finally drowned. During the first experiment, the researchers discovered that on the average, these rats were capable of swimming on an average of seven hours before they drowned.

So, they'd keep at it for seven hours, and finally they would quit. Then, they conducted a second experiment, exactly like the first, but there was one exception. This time, when a rat was getting too exhausted to swim anymore, the researcher would reach down and remove the rat from the tub of water for a few seconds, then put the rat back in the water to continue to swim.

The rats were able to survive for almost 20 hours just by being taken out for a little bit. The researchers concluded that the rats in the second group were able to swim so much longer than the first group because of one factor. You know what that is? They had hope. I want you to notice the researchers were the ones to give them hope. As the researchers reached down, pulled them out, all at once they're on solid ground. They're not having to swim. Maybe they're out a minute, put them back in, and then they extended the time of swimming almost three times instead of seven hours, 20 hours.

Rather than they had experienced a rescue, and as a result, they kept on going. They had hope. And how about us?

Somebody occasionally has to come along and help us. We all need help. We need someone who can come along and help rescue us, reach down, so to speak, and help us on a physical level to encourage. But we also have the hope that God holds out to us. Any time that we begin to become despondent and discouraged, we need to reflect back on, why am I alive? Why is God called me? What's the purpose of life? And we have hope, brethren. We have the hope of eternal life. We have the hope of the kingdom of God. We have the hope of the resurrection. We have the hope that God extends to us. That we can never let go of. We look to that hope. And that hope keeps pushing us. How many times do we become discouraged or want to give up or want to quit? And we realize, I can't do that. You know, I've come almost 50 years here, for I've come 50 years. I don't want to give up now. Yeah, I've got 50 years behind me. Many of you have 30, 40, 50 years that you've been obeying God and going His way. We don't want to quit. We don't want to give up. We want to keep going. And so we have to keep the kingdom of God vividly in front of us. We have to have that hope. And hope is one of the main ingredients that gets trashed when people become depressed and deeply discouraged, despondent. They don't have hope anymore.

So we need somebody who can come along and help us in that way. And we need to look to God and to His promises. We need to realize that real healing from God is hard to beat. God doesn't just give us a little pill. God is the one who reaches down and says, you are my hand-picked servant. I wouldn't have picked you if I didn't know you could make the kingdom. There is hope. I promise I will give you my spirit and you have the power. You have the strength through the spirit that I give to you. And as we've already found out in Hebrews 13, verse 5, God says, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.