When You Feel Like You’re Alone

A Drought in the Land

Do you feel as though the Lord has called you to service?  Take a lesson from Elijah. In I Kings chapter 17, God called Elijah the Tishbite and told him to tell Ahab the kind that there would not be rain or dew for the next three years in the country of Israel.  He then took him to the brook called Cherith. The name of this brook is very interesting because the name means “covenant”. It was hear that God allowed Elijah to stay and be fed by the Ravens every morning and evening until the brook dried up.

A brook represents living water which according to the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. This interaction is reminiscent of many Christians in Christian churches.  Christians like to sit in church and allow others to feed them. Week after week they drink of the spirit of God. Never growing. Eventually, if the Christian stays in this position, the spirit dries up. They are no longer fed by others and if they stay where they are, their spiritual lives will dry up.

Elijah, of course, did not stay where he was, but listen to God when he told him what he needed to do next. He went to the home of the widow woman and we all know the story of how when she gave him all that she had, the Lord provided for her, her son, and Elijah all ate for many days. We then learn of how Elijah brought her son back to life.

The Drought Ended but the Real Problems Began

We then learned in chapter 18 about how Elijah trusted God and God consumed with fire Elijah’s water soaked offering. Then Elijah slew the prophets of Baal near the brook of Kishon. After that, Elijah predicted that it would rain and  it started raining in exactly the way he said it would.

When in chapter 19, the queen discovered that Elijah had killed off all the prophets of Baal, she threatened to kill Elijah Elijah went and requested himself that he might die and said that he had not done enough. He thought he was the only one. He felt like a failure. Elijah was depressed all he could do was eat and sleep. Then the angel of the Lord told him that he would need nourishment for his journey and fed him again. After that, Elijah didn’t eat of forty days and nights as he journeyed to Horeb. There while standing in a cave he heard a wind, an earthquake, and a fire but God was not in the earthquake. Rather, he was in the midst of a still small voice.

The instructions of the Still Small Voice

There God told him to go to through the wilderness of Damacus and to anoint Hazael as king over Syria and Jeru over  Israel and Elisha as the prophet to  take his place. God also told Elijah that he was not alone, that God had 7000 others in Israel who did not worship Baal.

I think that there are a lot of Christian workers who feel they have failed God or that whatever they have done in this life while serving God was simply not enough. Like Elijah, they feel alone and that their work is in vain.

Our Own Spiritual Droughts

I know that I have felt like that lately. Recently I attended a revival it was the best experience I have had in a long time. I have been trying to serve at this church since November and have had very few people attend.

I have seen the Lord provide for me month after month during that time, but still, there has been a spiritual drought. I have felt that time of refreshing, only to be threatened with a depression that made me feel as though I was useless and a failure. Like Elijah, I just wanted to die.

Like Elijah, who was looking for God in the wind, earthquake, and fire, I was looking for big things to happen. That wasn’t how God is working right now. Rather, he is speaking to me in a still small voice telling me that depression is not where God wants me. He has other things for me to do. He has reminded me that I am not alone either. He has others getting ready to listen to his voice, who are ready and willing to be obedient.

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church  1 1/2 miles south of Brandsville, Missouri on Hwy 63. Sunday services are at 10 am and Wednesday night Bible Study at 6:30 pm.   As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and most recently, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga

Her most recent publication were two booklets Help From Kelp and Using Diatomaceous Earth Around the House and Yard. Available in paperback

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her book, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .