Have you ever felt all alone, as if no one really understands where you are or what you are going through? We all have at some point, right? The enemy is quick to try to isolate us from the flock to make us vulnerable. He feeds on these thoughts, because if he can get us to entertain them, he doesn’t have to worry about defeating us; we’ll defeat ourselves.
Sometimes the storms of life can seem overwhelming. Tests and trials are loud and seem so powerful. Our own emotions can be deafening. It can be difficult to even hear the voice of God, especially when so many other things have our attention. But sometimes we’re simply focused on the wrong thing, looking for God in the wrong place.
1 Kings 19:11-18
Elijah had an experience when he felt the very same way. He had just won a victory on Mt. Carmel, where God proved that He is the One and Living God. There was no question of God’s Omnipotence, and Elijah was on a spiritual high. And immediately after the victory, Elijah found out that Jezebel wanted to have him killed. He was afraid and disheartened—to the point of wanting to just die. Talk about depressed! (Right after a major victory too) Elijah was weary and wanted his life to end, and God met him right where he was. An angel came to Elijah and told him to “arise and eat because the journey is too great for you.” There are two lessons in that simple instruction.
- Arise—to come into being; to ascend; to begin at a source; to get up from sleep or after lying down. In other words, change your position. We all have moments when we feel “down and out,” but they are only meant to last a moment.
- Eat—nourishment is necessary to sustain us, physically and spiritually. We must feed ourselves with the Word of God just like we feed ourselves food. Eating brings the energy necessary to complete the task. I Kings 19:8 says that Elijah “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Elijah ended up in a cave, feeling sorry for himself. He felt like he was all alone and was still afraid of Jezebel’s threat. But God was patient with Elijah, just as He is with us.
The Manna Chef 