Avoiding the Path of Discouragement

Avoiding the Path to Discouragement

1 Kings 19:1-4

Imagine an advertisement posted in front of you for a garage sale. It is obvious that this sale is like no other you have seen before. The devil is the one who is having sale, and the items listed are all the tools of his trade. You see the tools of jealousy, envy, doubt, hatred, and many others listed and priced. However, there is one tool listed and priced that takes you by surprise. It is the most effective took the devil uses; therefore, it is expensive. The tool is discouragement and depression.

I am becoming more convinced by the day that one of the main objectives of the devil is to discourage and depress God's people so that he can go to the lost world and says, "Do you really want to be like Christians, discouraged and depressed?"

As one who struggles with discouragement and depression, I find great solace in the pages of the Bible. For instance, read the book of Psalms you find King David and other psalmist crying, "Why are you in despair, O my soul?" Jeremiah is the weeping prophet. Peter is depressed after denying the Lord. Even the Lord Jesus is anguishing in his soul.

It's no surprise that the great prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, experienced discouragement and depression. The late preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, once said, "Half the difficulties that men and women suffer arise from discouragement." I don't completely agree to that statement. I believe more than half the difficulties, we encounter, are a direct result of discouragement.

Elijah arrives on the scene abruptly in 1 Kings, chapter seventeen. Ironically, he leaves redemptive history in the same way without ever tasting death. Elijah spends over three years of his life hiding from King Ahab and his evil wife, Jezebel. Many supernatural things characterize Elijah's ministry; a sure sign God's hand was upon him.

In chapter seventeen, ravens provide his daily meals; dried-up Creek is his source of water, an impoverished widow about to eat her last meal provide continues meals, and the widow's son is raised from the dead. The subsequent chapter has fire falling from heaven, false prophets destroyed, and rain, after a three-year drought; all as a result of Elijah's fervent prayer life. It is only appropriate to end chapter eighteen with these words, "And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah."

Elijah experiences victory after victory because God's hand being upon him. Humanly speaking, you can't ask for better ministry results than the ones God gave Elijah. Nevertheless, contrasting chapter nineteen with the preceding two chapters is night and day difference. In the foregoing chapters, he's courageous; in chapter nineteen, he is discouraged and depressed.

The narrative reveals four causes of discouragement and depression: fatigue, frustration, failure, and fear.

·      Causes of discouragement:

#   Fatigue

#   Frustration

#   Failure

#   Fear

All these factors played a role in leading Elijah down discouragement's path. His failure to avoid the path of despair is the training ground for defeating discouragement. It is wise to realize that the battle with discouragement can't be avoided, but it can be won. How? Expect difficulties, not ease.

1.     Expect difficulties, not ease.

The first two verses of chapter nineteen reveal an unexpected response to God's work through Elijah, "Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow" (1 Kings 19:1-2). King Ahab does not see God's hand in Elijah's activity. Instead, he sees a troublemaker. True to her color, Jezebel responds to the news with a vow to kill Elijah.  

 
 

Elijah's response reveals the response was unexpected. After all the victories, he's not looking for any difficulties. He just prayed fire down from heaven, put to death over 400 false prophets, and prayed the drought away. Surely, everything is going to be easy at this point. Regrettably, Elijah underestimated the schemes of the devil.  

 
 

Children of God who are walking with God must never underestimate the tenacity of the devil. He will always give trouble to those who trouble him. He will never give up his attacks on God's faithful people, especially after great victories for the Lord.   

a.     Don’t underestimate the schemes of the devil.

Children of God who are walking with God must never underestimate the tenacity of the devil. He will always give trouble to those who trouble him. He will never give up his attacks on God's faithful people, especially after great victories for the Lord. 

The apostle Paul understood this truth when he penned Ephesians chapter six, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  For we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic power over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. “   Elijah also misunderstood the nature of walking with God, or for us, the Christian life. 

b.     Don’t misunderstand the nature of the Christian life. 

God allows his people to suffer, and even calls his people to suffer. Consequently, he leads his people into difficulties to test their faith, and to conform them into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ.  

 
 

If you are searching for a comfortable Christian life, you will end up on the path of discouragement. However, if you expect difficulties, and not ease, you are on your way to winning the battle within.   You will also need to think theologically, not circumstantially to avoid the path of discouragement.

2.     Think theologically, not circumstantially

The courageous prophet, in a matter of moments, is reduced to a coward in verse three, "Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there" (1 Kings 19:3). Fear has zapped the prophet of all his courage, and he runs for his life. 

 
 

Is this really the same prophet from the earlier chapters? Everything Elijah does in the prior chapters is in response to the Lord's word and direction. Now, he runs for his life without looking to God's word, or listening to his voice for assurance and guidance. What happened to Elijah? He allowed the circumstances to speak instead of the Lord. He was thinking circumstantially, not theologically. He was walking by sight, not by faith. Inevitably, his circumstances became sovereign and controlling.  

 
 

Thinking theologically is listening to the word of God, and standing on the promises of God. When the world crumbles around you, and the path to discouragement right before you, listen to God's voice, and stand on his promises, trusting him with all your heart, and learning not on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your path away from the path of discouragement.  

 
 

Elijah is not to only example we have for failing to think theologically. Abraham allowed his circumstances to control his life on many occasions. Ten of the twelve spies sent by Moses to check out the Promised Land allowed circumstances to speak louder than God's promises.  

 
 

When you think circumstantially, you magnify the difficulties of life, and as a result you become petrified. The path of discouragement can be avoided when you think theologically, not circumstantially.   Nevertheless, there is one more element to avoiding the path to discouragement.  Look upward, not inward.  

3.     Look upward, not inward.

Thinking circumstantially blocks your vision of God by turning your focus inward. Notice where Elijah's vision is focused in verse four, "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers " (1 Kings 19:4). Verse ten, "He said, 'I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of host'" (1 Kings 19:10). And verse fourteen, " He said, 'I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of host'" (1 Kings 19:14). Elijah is consumed with "I" because his vision had turned inward instead of upward.  

 
 

The devil loves it when God's people turn inward. He will take a hold of self and use it to discourage and depress us. Therefore, we must fight to keep our look upward, not inward.  

 
 

The size of a quarter is minute when compared to the Empire State Building. Even so, if you take two quarters and place them over your eyes, though they are small, they block the vision of everything around you. Likewise, when you turn inward, and don't look upward you block your vision of God.  

 
 

Elijah's vision of God was blocked, and it led him down the path of discouragement. Once on the path, he started taking things in his own hands, stopped listening to God, and stopped waiting on God, which led him outside of the will of God. The path of discouragement will take you places you really don't want to go.  

 
 

A pastor in Texas had a church member experienced a financial crisis. Even so, the member avoided the path of discouragement and depression. One day, the pastor asked, "How do you stay so happy? How do you avoid discouragement and depression?" The member said, "Come to my house, and I will show you." A few days later, the pastor was knocking at the door, curious to know his secret.  

 
 

The member brought his pastor into a large sitting room. Over the fireplace was a hand-painted picture of Daniel in the lion's den. At the top of the painting was a light shining down into the den. The member told the pastor, "Look closely at Daniel's eyes. Where are they looking?" "They are looking at the light," responded the pastor. "Exactly," said the member. "I like to look at this picture to remind me that when life is falling apart around me, I don't have to look at my circumstances; I can look upward to the light of the world, and he will guide me through. Looking upward keeps me from going down the path of discouragement."  

 
 

You can avoid the path of discouragement! Expect difficulties, not ease. Think theologically, not circumstantially. Look upward, not inward.