Elijah. Here is a man of God so low that he prays to die. We know that lost people struggle at times with depression. Each year in the U.S., half a million people attempt suicide; 30,000 succeed.
Christians sometimes struggle with depression, too.
William Cowper, author of “There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood,” attempted suicide several times. He tried to hang himself and the rope broke. He tried to poison himself and only got sick. He wanted to throw himself into the Thames River, so he hired a horse-drawn taxi and asked to be taken to the river only to have a huge fog roll in. They couldn’t find the river, and he had to go back home. Maybe that was why he wrote the hymn “God Moves in Mysterious Ways.”
The greatest Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, struggled with depression throughout his adult life: “I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope you never get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.”
How did Elijah get into depression?
(1 Kings 19:1–14)
4He had physical causes. In the previous days, he had come out of hiding after three and a half years at God’s command. He had challenged the prophets of Baal to the great battle on Mount Carmel. You know his adrenaline had to be running on high, as he first mocked the prophets before finally praying fire down from heaven. After the fire fell, he picked up a sword and personally hacked the false prophets to death. Then he went into agonizing prayer to God to end the drought. Seven times he threw himself on the ground before God in prayer before finally a small cloud appeared. Then he ran on foot the 20 miles from Mount Carmel to Jezreel to point his finger in Ahab’s face when God made it rain. He was physically spent. After this amazing, exhausting spiritual high, one woman said, “Boo,” and he ran and prayed to die.
Spurgeon preached a sermon titled “The Minister’s Fainting Fits.” In it, he gave several good reasons why ministers seem to be prone toward depression. One of those was the fact that our souls are attached to bodies. It is hard to be emotionally up when we are physically down. Many ministers have chronic physical problems. One of the reasons Spurgeon struggled with depression was that he had constant flare ups with gout.
A recent example of a minister who became incapacitated with depression is Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church in Texas and the speaker often heard through his Song of Solomon series. Nelson averaged teaching the Bible 20 times a week for years and found out he was not Superman. By keeping his adrenaline on constantly, he had a complete breakdown that caused him to be out of the pulpit for four months. His recovery came through the use of serotonin inhibitors and emotional rest.
Experts say 10 percent to 15 percent of those who experience depression do so because of a chemical imbalance. I am grateful that God has given us the ability to come up with drugs that can help a person with this imbalance. Some try to act as if it is unspiritual to take a drug to bring back emotional balance. Would they tell a diabetic that he or she could get rid of diabetes if he or she just prayed harder?
Ron Dunn was a friend of mine. His son was bipolar. He did well when he was on his meds. The problem was that when he started feeling better, he would go off of them; then he would fall dramatically. On Thanksgiving Day 1975, Dunn’s son committed suicide because he had discontinued use of his drugs.
Other illnesses can cause depression. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series, had a preacher friend who checked himself into a hospital for depression. They found that he was hypoglycemic. With his erratic schedule of eating as a preacher, his blood sugar was taking dramatic plunges, sending him into depression.
Elijah went into depression because he was emotionally exhausted. He had just gone through a high adrenaline experience on Mount Carmel. He had spent his emotions even though it was on good things. Now his emotional tank hit empty. Depression is to the emotions what exhaustion is to the body. If you spent all day working in your yard and were so tired you couldn’t hold your arms up, then it would be wrong for someone to say, “If you just prayed harder, you wouldn’t be so tired.” A physically tired person needs to get some rest. In the same way, when we wring out our emotions, we hit depression. What we need to do then is not to read the Bible more or pray more. We need to find some pleasant way to replenish our emotions. Maybe you should go fishing or take a country walk with no cell phone.
In Spurgeon’s sermon “The Minister’s Fainting Fits,” he made the point that ministers may even be more prone to depression because of the emotional nature of our ministry. People don’t usually call me with good news. We go along helping people from crisis to crisis. There comes a time when we who give out have given out ourselves.
• Elijah went into depression because he was in conflict with people. This point and the previous one are connected. Nothing drains us more emotionally than being in conflict with people. If you are the parent of a rebellious child, then you have probably cried your eyes out and spent many sleepless nights. Some of you may be in a job situation that is fraught with tension every day. If your church is one of the many with continual people conflict going on, then you will find yourself at the point of emotional exhaustion on a regular basis.
• Elijah went into depression because he lost hope. He thought he had won the battle on Mount Carmel only to be met with the reality that Jezebel was still in power and unrepentant. He won a victory and nothing changed.
Hope is absolutely necessary for our souls. We have to believe that things will get better in the future.
Hope is something we Christians should always have. We have the promise of heaven. We have the trustworthiness of the promises of God. I have worn some verses out over my children and lived to see God come through.
• Elijah went into depression because he thought he was all alone (10, 18). But there were 7,000 others still faithful. We wrongly assume that we are all alone. “Nobody knows the trouble I see!” First Corinthians 10:13 teaches us that all we are going through is common to other Christians. One of the reasons we feel all alone is the fact that Christians at church tend to wear masks and hide their struggles. We appear happier and more together than we are so other Christians just assume they don’t have what we have. We don’t have it either.
How God got Elijah out of depression:
• He met physical needs, giving him food and rest.
• God convicted him (8). “What are you doing here, Elijah?” I believe that God is shaming Elijah here. “Are you the same man who stood tall on Mount Carmel? What are you doing here?” Sometimes we need God to give us a firm kick to get us back up.
Martin Luther is one of the many Christian leaders in the past who struggled at times with depression. Once he had been debilitated by depression so that he had not left his room for two weeks. In Katie, Luther had a feisty wife who was his equal. Katie brought him his food to his room each day. After two weeks, she came in bringing his food while wearing her dress that she wore only to funerals. Luther had been out of touch so he asked, “Who died?” She replied, “God died.” When he reacted in anger to her blasphemy, she responded, “God must have died by the way you are acting.” Katie’s shaming him worked to get him out of the room.
• God reminded him he was not alone (18). The irony is that in depression, we avoid people yet that is when we need people most. Depressed people stay out of church when they need to be in church more than ever.
Bob Baggott, a late Alabama Baptist pastor, told a story about a preacher in Florida in the 1960s whose life fell apart. In one week, his daughter left her husband for another man, his son burned his draft card and quit his professor’s job, and his own wife left him. He went to another town to a hotel and stayed in the room all weekend. He sat there on Sunday, missing church for the first time in years. On Monday, he decided to attend the preachers meeting of that association. When he walked in, everyone knew who he was and had heard about his resignation. The meeting went along like a typical preachers meeting. Pastor after pastor shared about the great things that were happening in their churches. When they finally came around to this pastor, he shared all that had happened and then asked, “Can God use a failure like me?” After a moment of silence, one pastor spoke up and shared what was really going on in his life: “Things are all right in my church, but my daughter is on drugs, and it is killing my wife and me.” Another pastor shared about his heartaches. After everyone in the room had finally shared his burden, there was a prayer time and a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
• God came in a still small voice (11–12). When God lifted him out, it was not through a tornado, earthquake or dramatic fire; it was through a still small voice. When we get to our lowest points, God knows just how to bring us back up again.
I have been blessed to have had only one rough church experience. I knew this church had a history of conflict, but I was sure God had called me to go there. After about four months, we had a business meeting that exploded with outbursts of anger. I had never witnessed such a thing before. After 45 minutes, we finally just went home. For the first time in my life, real depression set in. For the next four days, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. I tried to leave the house once, but I saw a church member in the parking lot of the grocery store and turned around unable to face anyone.
Sadly enough, a young couple from a previous church whom we had led to Christ stayed with us that weekend. My wife was sweet toward them but I was dead inside. I sat in the chair like a zombie and said nothing. On Saturday afternoon, I said to them and my wife, “I am doing nobody any good. I’m going to the church.” I went into the sanctuary and began to talk to God. “God, I want to die. I just can’t go on.” I heard God speak to me, not in an audible voice but in a real way. “OK, you can die. Write it down — Steve Scoggins died on this day. It doesn’t matter what they do to a dead man.” In that lowest moment, I received an incredible fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. I got excited. That next morning as I preached, the Spirit fell and scores of people came forward. A new fire came to the church.
Maybe you are one of those ministers who have given out and given out until you are at the point where you have nothing left to give. You are in good company. Spurgeon found himself there at times. Luther found himself there. My prayer is that the same God who lifted up Elijah will lift you up this day.
To view a video related to this story, visit the video library.
Share with others: