Overcoming Depression, part 2

Turn to the book of 1 Kings this morning, 1 Kings chapter 19, as we continue on in our series

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

! We're talking about the resilient life, and we started last week talking about dealing

! with depression and the things overcoming it along the way, and we find that depression is

something that is not just a growing problem, but is a problem within individuals from the very

beginning, and even great, what we might say, great saints of God, even like Elijah,

faced seasons of depression in their life. I think it's not a matter of if, but when we have to walk

through, and we walk through all different levels of this. But as we begin looking here, 1 Kings

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

chapter 19, if you would, and we'll pick up it and read a few verses here, and take a look here as we

work through this. Let me get the pages separated here. All right. Verse 1 of chapter 19, it says,

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with Ahab he had slain all the prophets with the sword,

and then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also,

if I make not thy life as the life is one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that,

he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his

servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a

juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and he said, It is enough. Now, O Lord,

take away my life, for I'm not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under the juniper

tree, behold, the angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we

come before you this morning. Lord, we just thank you for your love for us. Lord, we thank you as we look

in an important reality of walking through seasons of depression, things that happen in our life that

cause us to be depressed or to be cast down in our spirit. Lord, we pray that you just would help us to

realize the nature of it. And Lord, also, your provision as we walk through those things in our

life. And Lord, we just ask all this in your precious name. Amen. You know, we began last week talking

about depression. It's been a growing problem. When we looked at a few statistics last week, you know,

that worldwide it said that 30 million people have been diagnosed with depression. You know, when you

consider the dynamic, it's just in one 12-month period, 3.1 million people between the ages of 12

and 17 were diagnosed with depression just even here in the United States. You know, we face these

things. It says that 8.75% of women and 5% of men report having experienced depression.

And depression leads to the next. That suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10 to 34-year-olds.

And it can be hard to deal with. It's hard to define because depression takes many faces.

You know, people deal with it differently in their life, but a lot of the symptoms are very similar.

You know, feelings of sadness, emptiness, hopelessness. You know, a loss of interest or pleasure in just

normal daily activities. I mean, when we see those things, insomnia, you know, not being able to sleep,

but also in sleeping too much. You know, depression is not one of those things that you can just go down

the list and say, well, if a person has check, check, check, check, check, this must be going on.

It manifests itself in a lot of ways. And differently amongst people of everything from not wanting to

eat to want to eat everything that you get a hold of. I mean, the spectrum is broad of the impact that

it has, and it leads to trouble thinking and concentrating and making decisions. It even impacts

our ability to remember and to concentrate on things. And any one of those things might be a challenge,

but when you put them all together, it becomes overwhelming. And we began looking at that in the

life of Elijah, because Elijah faced a season of very difficult depression in his life. You know,

say, preacher, why do you call it difficult or even a heavy point of depression when somebody goes,

I just want to die? Think he said, Lord, just take my life. I'm done. You ought to be able to recognize

that as coming to a point that depression is taking a prominent place within your life or the life of

an individual. Depression comes to many degrees. You know, it simply means depressed. They're feeling

a little down. I mean, depression can be everything from, I'm just feeling ho-hum today, I want to take

my life. The spectrum is wise, but when we understand that we need to look at, understand the complexities

of it, because sometimes Christian asks, is depression rooted in physical or spiritual causes?

And we talked about that last week, sometimes both, both and, either or. That's what make it such a

challenge, because oftentimes when we see people, they say, must be sin. I want to encourage you

just because somebody depressed don't naturally associate it with sin. It may or may not be.

When we understand that it's just the impact of life seems overwhelming. It comes from a combination

of factors and these things, and there's always a need for hope in Christ to look and focus or refocus

our life upon the Lord. You know, and Elijah had to learn this from God himself. He had to learn the

fact that there's going to be these mountain highs. I mean, when you think about what Elijah went through

right before this, he called fire down from heaven. I don't know about you, but that's about as spiritual

high as you can get here on earth. It's like, you pray and fire comes down from heaven? Within a short

time, he's lying under a juniper tree, exhausted, and saying, Lord, just kill me. The depression in his life

was real. And we understand, we talked about Elijah and all that had happened there up on Mount Carmel,

where he called fire down from heaven, and he destroyed the prophets of Baal. And then he prayed, and it

rained, because it hadn't rained for three years. Had the rain now come. Matter of fact, he had to run to outrun the

rainstorm. What started as a little cloud in the sky in the distance started to brew. You know, whenever I

read that, I kind of think of looking at a storm coming across. You know, because when we have such

open plains like this, you can see a distance, and you'll see a little cloud start coming, and by

mid-afternoon, you start seeing the thunderheads start rolling. I imagine it's kind of what they saw

that day. It's like, oh, there's just a little cloud. It's nothing. Uh-oh. Then you can see it start

rolling up even higher and higher. We better get moving, because we're going to get drenched.

But we see these amazing victories. But we're going to look here again today about resilience in the

midst of depression, because I want you to understand and remember that discouragement is a tool of Satan.

Discouragement is a tool that Satan uses in our life. To also remember that depression is experienced by

good people. To be feeling low says nothing directly about you as a person, other than the

fact you have situations in life that are impacting you. You know, the reality is you have situations

that impact you. Why? Because you're alive. You know, that's really the bottom line. You're still

breathing. You're going to have problems. You're going to have trials and tribulations and struggles.

It's part of the dynamic of living. But I want you to also understand hope that there is deliverance

through God. God designed us. He knew exactly what we need. But let's look at discouragement. We'll

review a little bit here as that tool that Satan uses. You know, Satan uses discouragement as a tool,

and he has great timing. You know, sometimes timing's everything. You know, it's kind of like somebody

trying to tell a joke. Timing is everything. Between where everybody looks at that was just weird,

or that was funny. The devil knows what time to strike in your life. He knows what arrow to send at you.

Oftentimes it comes when we're on a high point. You know what happens when everything's going good,

and you're kind of on the high point. You know what sometimes we do? We put down our guard. Because

we're not paying attention, we're paying attention to the good things that are going on.

And we put our guard down. And we see here that sometimes they plummet, our emotions plummet,

as we're going to find here with Elijah. Because when we understand that the devil doesn't play fair,

his pattern of attacking is when we're most vulnerable all throughout Scripture. I mean,

you think about it. We talked about Jesus in the wilderness. He didn't come at the beginning of

his fasting. If for 40 days, he came at the end when he was tired. He was exhausted. Elijah's

incredible victory on Mount Carmel, Satan brought out his tool of discouragement and used it as a

person, Jezebel, to do it. His timing. But we saw that what happened, he used the threat that

Jezebel made. He says, Jezebel, the queen, a wicked queen, said, hey, I'm going to kill you.

Now, when we look at that, we say, well, why was he so scared of Jezebel? Well, that's a good

question. You just called down fire from heaven and killed 800 prophets of Baal. But you know what?

Sometimes things that shouldn't bother us do. Because it hits at a point and a place in our life

that seems to slip through the cracks. And the devil's a master archer of shooting the darts.

That's the reason we need to take up the shield of faith that we might prevent those fiery darts

of the devil to make its way through. Because it's not a question whether they're coming. It's a matter

of whether we're going to be ready for them or not. You know, I want you to understand that even James

in James 5, 17 reminds us that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. I want you

to understand Elijah wasn't superhuman. He was just a man that God used mightily because he was willing

to trust God. When we understand the dynamic and the point of all these dynamics is because we're

going to experience times when we're vulnerable to discouragement. The circumstances that fed into it

are real. You know, I want you to understand Elijah wasn't running from fictitious Jezebel. He was

running from a real live wicked woman who wanted to kill him. Now I want to give you another idea on

that concept because it wasn't just she might have instructed the killing but she wasn't the only one

looking to kill him. She would have dispatched many people to go look for him to make sure he was dead.

But discouragement is a tool of Satan. Secondly here, depression is experienced by good people.

You know, you can be doing what you might look in your life. I'm doing everything right, Lord. Why is

this happening? Why is this going on in my life right now? Why is these things coming at me at this

point? And we see here and understand the necessity of sometimes we're going to be vulnerable to the Lord.

You know, sometimes we find that God uses and works through even these situations because sometimes

we mistakenly assume that depression is always rooted in something we did wrong and sometimes

it's because the devil attacks in what we did right. And we're going to go through seasons of

depression. There are times when depression is a result of God's conviction and they need to respond

to that. But remember that sin isn't always the cause. If you're feeling depressed, I'd encourage you to

get before the Lord like David did oftentimes. Lord, search my heart. Make sure what's going on in there.

But you know, when you ask God to search you, the other thing he's going to do is come and encourage you.

God's going to be there. And we read throughout the Psalms that dynamic. And we see here that Elijah,

the great prophet of God that he was, seemed to take the route of running away, to allow life,

to overcome. And we see his reaction. Because remember first, he did what when he was experiencing

this? He sought to be isolated. You know, one of the markers of depression in Elijah's life was

his desire to isolate himself. Think about in our text there, look at verse three. It says,

he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba. And then it goes on and says,

but he left his servant there, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

In other words, he went 15 to 20 miles on into the wilderness past anybody else.

You know, sometimes isolation can be a sign of depression, but it's also

the perpetrator of depression. You know, when we isolate ourselves, it magnifies

what's going on. It magnifies that dynamic. And we see and understand the picture here because

Elijah's pulling away in isolation. But look over to Psalm 102 for a moment. Psalm 102 in verse seven

says this, I watch in him as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Mine enemies reproach me all the day

and they are mad against me or sworn against me. Here's David. He's recognizing that dynamic

of feeling isolated that everybody's against him. And when you sense yourself emotionally withdrawing,

especially from family and people at church, you're walking a very dangerous path. You know,

sometimes that's the first thing people do is they walk away from family. They walk away

from church. They walk away from this very support God's given to them.

Those around them that love them and want to desire to see them thrive and to see them

be a part. But we notice something else that he isolated himself from God. It tells us in verse four,

but he himself went, you know, Elijah didn't consult God in it. When he was up on Mount Carmel, he was

consulting God. He was asking God, Lord, what am I to do? Here, Elijah doesn't even ask.

You know, oftentimes we get in trouble when we don't seek God for direction in what God would have. In

his isolation, he didn't consult God for direction or help. He went into the wilderness and sank into despair.

So here we find Elijah. He's in the wilderness under the juniper tree. That's where we left off last

week because we know how he got there. But the important part, what did God do when he was there?

You know, here he is. He despaired for his life. You know, another marker in Elijah's downward

spile was his despair. Look at verse four. It tells us this, and he says,

and he requested for himself that he might die and said, it is enough. Now, oh Lord, take my life,

for I am not better than my father's. You know, Elijah's despair was not based in reality,

especially not. You think about that. He's pleading. He's crying out for God to take him,

the very God he should have been crying out and said, Lord, help me. Lord, I need your help. I need

your encouragement. You know, here's a man that God worked miracles through and was soon. You're

going to see God gave him some things that he was going to work some miraculous things after.

But when you're tempted to despair in life, don't. Hold on to God's promise to provide a way.

You know, think about, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

The Bible tells us something here. He says this,

No temptation hath taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer

you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that

you may be able to bear it. I want you to understand this applies not just for our temptation of sin,

but also in the moments when the devil's attacking, when we feel low, that God says,

I have a way for you to walk through it, to be able to overcome it. You know, the Bible's written

for our learning. You know, in Elijah's life, we can learn there's great things on the other side.

Even when we're feeling down, doesn't mean it's the end. That God says there's still great things

that can come ahead. You know, if you've lived very long, you see life's got a lot of cycles to it.

You know, the longer I live, the more I realize how much the cycles of life come and go. It's part

of living. And Elijah here was despair and wanted to be taken to heaven. You know, it's interesting that a

little later on, he was, God did take him to heaven, but it wasn't in his point of despair.

He got a chariot ride up into heaven.

You know, when we understand what's happening here, it, when we understand that this happens

to people throughout the scripture, you know, think about Job. Did Job merit all his family dying,

all his goods being taken? When you read the book of Job, you'll find Job had a series of

depression he was dealing with. And I think rightly so, the things he was facing were pretty traumatic.

They're overwhelming emotionally, physically, can be overwhelming spiritually, but yet God

brought him through and still blessed. Matter of fact, in that season, you'll find oftentimes God grows us

through those situations because it helps us to know who he is and what he can do.

Moses faced it. Moses faced great despair. When you read through the book of Exodus and

Numbers and Deuteronomy, and you read through all the things that went on, there was moments

Moses was pretty upset with things. Moses was like, Lord, why in the world should you bring me out?

Let me bring these people out here. You know, Moses was sometimes discouraged. He was frustrated.

You know, I want you to understand it wasn't just people in the Old Testament.

Saints of every generation have faced this. Because remember, it's such as common to man.

In other words, when we face seasons of discouragement and depression, it's nothing that

somebody else hasn't already faced. But what do we do? We say, no, it's only me.

You know, the devil loves to use that only me thing. I'm so special. Nobody else has ever had

to deal with this. You say, preacher, that's rough. I'm like, but you know, sometimes we don't say it,

but that's how we think it. We get depressed thinking, hey, why is it only me who faces this?

The reality is, it isn't only you. There's been others before you who face it, and the Lord tarries,

there'll be some after you. But that God walks them through. You know, when we realize that

throughout history, you'll find even great hymns were written because of discouragement. You know,

perhaps you've heard the song that begins like this. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from

Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

It was written by William Cowper. It describes his salvation experience. What you might not know

is how, that is that Cowper came to faith in Christ while he was committed to an insane asylum after

having attempted suicide. It was through a faithful witness of a Christian doctor, Nathaniel Cotton,

at the asylum that Cowper understood the gospel and trusted Christ as his Savior. He still went

through series of, and times of depression, and three more times he ended up in a hospital.

His pastor was John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. When we understand the picture, he was speaking how

God brought him through the circumstance. You know, Satan's darts of discouragement is going to be

there, but don't give in to despair and say, God, I'm done. Rather, turn to the Lord and let him lead you

through the situation. Because not only did Elijah feel or want to be isolated, he despaired for his life,

but he also felt alone. You know, what drove Elijah's desire for isolation and his sense of despair?

You know, he saw all these things take place. But you think about Elijah, what led him to this place?

He said, Lord, he felt alone. Think about in verse 10, look down at verse 10 in chapter 19.

It says, he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel

have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slaying thy prophets with the sword.

And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away. He felt alone and he convinced

himself he was alone. Think about that. He says, Lord, I'm the only one you got left,

which we know a little later wasn't the truth. Tells us in verse 18 and that same passage,

it says that God says, no, sorry, I got some news for you. There's 7,000 others just like you.

Said, you're not alone at all. You just try to make yourself alone. But here we find Elijah,

his time of depression, he felt that he was alone in a desperate place and there was no one

who stood with him. You know, oftentimes that's what the devil wants to do. So there's nobody there

with you. There's nobody standing alongside and no one understands how I feel. No one else works as

hard as I do. No one appreciates me. No one has it as bad as I do. I'm the only one around here making

a difference. And I'm the one that carries all the way. You know, those are dangerous thoughts

they have to guard ourselves from because it's very easy to get caught up in them.

But you notice what they're focused in? I. When we understand you're not the only one working for

the Lord. God's work goes on in the midst of God's people working with the Lord. When you hear yourself

thinking this, you need to be careful because thinking that focuses on self and takes our eyes

off the Lord. I, I, I, I, instead of Lord, what am I to do? It's the difference between pride and humility.

Pride always says I'm better than somebody else. It's kind of that introverted pride that says I'm

better than having to experience this. You know, oftentimes pride tells us, Lord, I don't deserve this.

But we need to understand that no matter what comes into our lives, even the darkest points of

depression, we can be sure that he'll never leave us alone. God will never leave you or forsake you.

Because let's look at the third one here quickly. Deliverance is possible through God.

You know, one of the blessings of Elijah's story that even through, though he felt so low and followed

some concerning markers of despair and despondency, God brought him out and through. Because we see

something here that takes place that ought to encourage you, we see the touch of God.

Notice here the touch of God. Look at verse five.

And he lay and slept under the juniper tree and behold, there was an angel touched him and said

unto him, arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of

water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again

the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee.

And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meet 40 days and 40 nights

unto Horeb the mount of God. You know, when we have those points, I want you to understand God comes

and touches your life. Encourages you, brings you through those things. It's a real dynamic,

you know, because when you think about how does God touch our lives and meet our needs

when we're low, he does it through three means. He does it through the local church because the

connection you have at church helps you walk through those situations. When you isolate yourself

from God's people, you know what? The devil's got a victory. He does it through the word of God and

he does it through his spirit. You know, we need to be careful that we need to understand the

importance of not pulling away when you're having struggles, but getting closer. You know, think

about that in context of Hebrews chapter 10, look down at verse 24. Hebrews 10 and verse 24 says this,

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Well, how can somebody provoke

you unto love and good works if you're by yourself? How are you going to provoke somebody else to love

and good works if you're not there? Notice what it says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves

together as the manner of some is, but exhort one another and so much more as you see the day

approaching. You know, I want you to understand God says you need to be around where the word is,

where the spirit's working and where God's people are, because those are tools that he gives you to

walk through those seasons of life. It's things that he gives to us. God ministers through us through

his word as you read it, as you hear it preached, as you listen to other godly Christians talk about

how God has impacted their life. You know, that's the reason that if you're feeling low, you don't need

to be isolated. You need to find somebody to talk to. Because when we get that spiritual and biblical

encouragement, what we find in Colossians 3 takes place, look over to Colossians 3, chapter 15,

verse 15. It says this,

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you're called in one body.

And be ye thankful that the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing

one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And then, of course, the Holy Spirit directs our hearts and guides us. You know, look over to John

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14. John 14 and verse 16 says, And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another

comfort that he may abide with you forever. You know, Jesus is telling his disciples before he goes

to the cross, he says, Hold on, guys, I might go away, but I'm going to send the comfort of the one

that's never going to leave you. We need God's comfort, and we need the comfort of the Holy Spirit

when those moments, when we're struggling, it refers to that reality that he is a helper and an aid to us.

Not only in the aspect of emotionally, but also in proximity. He says he'll never leave us or forsake us.

The Bible says that when you're saved, you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He is the

earnest of our salvation, our redemption. He's with you. He's present to comfort and help and to carry.

But depression has a way of skewing our perspective to the reality of what's really there.

Even as a believer, sometimes we skew the reality. Well, God's not really there with me. God says,

yes, I am. But we have the touch of God, but also the provision of God. You know, God provides what's

needed. The physical provision, notice what took place. The angel that God sent to Elijah came bearing

gifts, a cake baked on the coals and a curse of water, or a cruise of water. You know, think about

that for a moment. What did Elijah need? He needed a couple things very important physically.

What he went through, number one, would have been emotionally and spiritually and physically

exhausting. Sometimes when you're feeling down, the best thing you can do is get some rest. To

understand that depression has a physical component. Sometimes depression is brought on by

serious physical illnesses. I mean, there are things of deficiencies and malfunctions within our bodies or

chronic diseases that you're facing. If you're struggling with persistent depression with an

unidentified cause, it might be good to get checked out and say, hey, what might be looking at? What do I

need to do here? But not all physical needs require a doctor to diagnose. God provided for the two basic

ones, sleep and eat. You know, when people get depressed, think about that. One of the things we talked about

at the beginning, what gets affected? Your eating habits and your sleeping habits. You need to keep them

in proper perspective. There's no substitute for that, but also spiritual replenishment. After meeting

Elijah's physical needs, God redirected Elijah's focus to his deeper need, a need for spiritual

replenishment. Look at verse 11 here in chapter 19. And he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before

God. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces

the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, the earthquake. But the

Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after

the fire, a still, small voice. God helped Elijah to refocus, which drew attention to God and not to Elijah.

It wasn't in the great powerful storm that God sent that day, but it was in the still, small voice of God.

You know, sometimes when it comes to the need for spiritual replenishment, we become our own worst enemy.

Instead of taking time and placing priority on hearing the small, still voice of God, we look to ourselves,

we look at our circumstances, we give up in despair. When we be better to stop and to pause and to spend

time with God, allow God to recalibrate our thinking in our hearts towards him, to get those things

correct. And so, you know, as we look at the reality of a biblical recovery or working through a depression

that comes, we need to be replenished physically and spiritually. But as we close here, I want to look

at five specific actions that we can look through from Elijah that can help us work through those

seasons of life. The first one, always remember to get proper rest and nutrition. You know, eat right.

Don't go attack the ice cream jug. You know, chocolate soothes the soul. But you know what?

In excess, it becomes a problem. There's a value to understanding your physical limits and replenish

before you reach the brink of despair. You know, you think about in the ministry of Jesus, there was times

there was no leisure so much as to eat, the Bible tells us. In Mark chapter 6, I mean, sometimes life just goes

Mark 6 · chapter mention

crazy. We need to recognize your physical limits and pull back. Because Jesus also told them to go away into

what? Rest a while. Rest can be important. Secondly here, refuse to dwell on negative or untrue thoughts. You

know, Elijah was repeating the thinking about that he was alone for God. And that dynamic affected his attitude, it

affected his spirit, it affected all that he did, because our thinking impacts what we do.

You know, look it over to Philippians chapter 4 for a moment. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Bible tells us here this, it says,

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,

whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,

if there be any virtue, if there be any praise. Now notice that last phrase, do what? Think on these

things. What you spend your time thinking about impacts what you do and how you respond to the things around

you. Thirdly, refocus on the Lord by spending time in his word and in prayer. You know, the greatest help for

Elijah was in hearing the still small voice of God. Sometimes you've got to walk through those things. Just because

you read the Bible doesn't mean it's going to just go away instantaneously. That's another falsehood, because it's not like a

one-time magic pill. You know, you take the pill and you're going to feel better. You know, it's kind of like the old

thing when the doctor tells him, go home, take an aspirin and call me in the morning. That's not the way it works.

But look over to Psalm 119 for a moment. Psalm 119, a constant process of the word of God helps us walk through.

Psalm 119 verse 81 tells us this,

Psalms 119:81

In other words, David understood that he needed to keep seeking God, that the comfort was going to come

from the Lord. It comes from the assurance that we can trust what God says.

Prayer, you know, think about Philippians 4 and verse 6 tells us this,

Number four, submit to God's will and seek his direction. I hear the pitter-patter, so we're going to get

done here so the herd doesn't overrun us. You know, God twice asked Elijah what he was doing in the cave.

God had to give him direction. He needed to seek God's direction.

Seek others when you're going through it. Seek direction from other godly people.

Seek direction from God's word. Seek direction through prayer.

Understand what's going on. You know, Ephesians 5 tells us to redeem the time because the days are evil.

Wherefore, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

You know, we talked about that even in the life of Joseph this morning. You know what made difference?

When Joseph chose to forgive, he understood that he was still operating in the will of God.

God had his hand upon all that was happening.

But to encourage, or to, excuse me, to engage in serving the Lord and others.

You know, one of the best things to do if you're feeling isolated, alone, and depressed is to get up and go help somebody else.

Because you know what? It gets your focus off you and onto something else and onto something that also needs accomplished.

Galatians 6.10 says this,

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

You know, we need to find ways of serving.

You know, as Elijah was there under the juniper tree, the devil used that tool of discouragement in his life.

He experienced a reality we all face.

But I want you to also understand that the same reality that God delivers through those things.

Important elements when we work through the ups and the downs.

of life.

Let's pray.