He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”...Then a voice said to him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”—I Kings 19:4b,9b
OVERCOMING CRISES OF FAITH
Being saved carries with it a number of assurances. Because I’m saved, I don’t have a fear of Hell, because salvation assures me that Hell is no longer in my future. Because I’m saved I know that I’m never alone, for I have Christ’s assurance that He will never leave me nor forsake me; I have the in-dwelling and in-filling presence of the Holy Spirit to equip and empower me. Because I’m saved I know that my sin has been forgiven, that I’ve been regenerated, redeemed and reconciled to my Heavenly Father, that I’ve been elevated to the full place of Sonship and heirship that God always intended for me, and that all of this has been done not because of me, but in spite of me, through the gracious gift of Jesus Christ. And it’s good to live everyday secure in the knowledge that my salvation is a guarantee that can’t be lost.
But being saved doesn’t mean that I’m not subject to periods of weakness along this Christian journey. Being saved doesn’t mean that I’m perfect—I will make mistakes. Being saved doesn’t mean that I won’t have to deal with disappointments and frustra-tions—there are many and sometimes they appear to be mounting exponentially. Being saved doesn’t mean that there will never be times of anxiety, fear and anger. There’s a reason why Christians are called disciples—it takes tremendous discipline to live a life of faith when circumstances are not what we would want them to be.
Though I an absolutely sure of my salvation, I confess that there are times when I don’t feel saved. I know that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and I know that He’s in charge of the universe. Yet there are circumstances that arise in my life that challenge my faith. There are circumstances that arise in my life that cause me to hurt. And when I’m hurting, I just want the pain to stop. And when the pain just keeps on coming and gets worse instead of better, when I wake up with hurt in the morning after I’ve tossed and turned with hurt all night long, when my hurt follows me like a shadow in the noon-day Sun, when my hurt won’t let me eat, when my hurt robs me of my concentration, when my hurt pulls me down like an anchor tied around my neck, in those times, if I’m not careful, my faith will get weak.
Now, somebody here today may know something of what I’m talking about. Somebody may be in a bad place in your home-life. There’s no peace in your house; you and your spouse can’t get along no matter how hard you try; your children don’t respect you and you wake up every morning dreading what the day will bring. And because of personal sorrows, your faith has gotten weak. Somebody’s health has betrayed him. You’ve got aches and pains, your energy is gone and you’re flat on your back a lot of the time. And in your pain, you’re asking yourself, “Does God really care about me?” Somebody’s done all they know how to live a Christian life. You try to live by the Golden Rule, you try to treat people as you want to be treated, and yet, it seems like the nicer you are to folk, the more they take advantage of you; the more you try to help folk, the more they do to hurt you. And in the midst of it all, you’ve thrown your hands up in despair and your faith has gotten weak.
When these moments come they must be taken seriously, for they represent a crucial point in our walk with Christ. They don’t threaten to take away our salvation, but they can make life less worth living; they can negatively infringe on the quality of our lives; they can hinder us from fulfilling our divine potential. And for those dealing with these moments, the question becomes, “Will conditions prevail over me or will I trust God to see me through negative conditions?” As Christians, we’re expected to walk by faith, not sight. But often our faith is challenged by what we see. But to rise above our crises of faith and trust God anyhow, we must employ faith to help us. Without faith, there’s a lot we can’t cope with; without faith, we can’t make sense of a lot that we see. But when our faith is strong, then even though our hearts may ache, even though our eyes may be wet with tears, we can still find comfort in God’s promise that, “I will neither leave you nor forsake you.” And so, challenges to our faith-walk should serve as spiritual alarms alerting us to the fact that it’s time to draw nearer to God.
In our text today, we see God’s prophet Elijah confronted by a crises in his faith. Elijah’s name means, “Yahweh is God,” yet the text describes a period in Elijah’s life when he experienced a crisis of faith.
Young people, never forget that weakness can happen to anybody. None of us is so strong that we will never experience a crisis of faith. One tactic of the Devil is to get us to believe that moments of weakness can’t happen to us. Consequently, when weak moments come, they can be so overwhelming that we’re unable to get past them. Satan causes us to question our salvation; Satan gets us so caught up in our dilemmas that we become ineffective in doing what Christ has told us to do, which is to make disciples. And what we fail to understand is that when Satan has that kind of effect on us, he’s getting what he wants. Satan may not get us, but if he keeps us from doing the work that Christ has assigned to us to do, then there are others who will never come to know Christ because we were unable to get past our personal weaknesses.
Elijah is experiencing a moment of weakness in his life; he’s having a crisis in his faith. Elijah had emerged onto the scene of history rather suddenly, during the reign of King Ahab of Israel. We know little about his background, but we know that he’s one of the great pillars of our faith because he let God use him.
Church, one common cause of crisis in our faith is because we won’t let God use us to our maximum potential. A lot of us give God a little bit of us, but few of us give God all of us. We won’t tithe like God has told us to do because we won’t give God all of us. We live in houses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, drive cars that cost tens of thousands of dollars, write checks to send our kids to private schools that cost us hundreds of dollars each month, and then give God’s Church a few dollars every now and then and act like we’ve done God a favor. But when we do that, we’re giving God a little bit of us, but we won’t give Him all of us. We won’t worship like we should. We come late—if we come at all—and we often come as though we’ve done God a favor by showing up in His House on the day He’s blessed us to see, under the strength He’s blessed us to have, to give Him thanks for a salvation that looked beyond our many faults and met our every need. And we do that because we don’t mind giving God a little bit of us, but we won’t give Him all of us. We’ll give our all to the job; we’ll give our all to other people and other programs; we’ll give our all to personal agendas. But Da-vid asks the question—in Psalm 116—that all of us need to ask: “How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?” And then he answers his own question this way: “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.”
Elijah had been effective for God because he had an attitude that God could deal with. Elijah had an obedient spirit. And Church, if we’re going to make a difference for Christ, then we must be obedient. For some of us, obedience is fine as long as the cost is not too great, but Elijah obeyed God in some tough conditions. When drought came to the land Elijah obeyed God, and God led Elijah to a brook for water; God fed him with bread and flesh every morning and evening. When the brook dried up, Elijah continued to obey God, and God led him to a village called Zarephath, where he stayed with a widow and her son. And Elijah encouraged them to obey God, and because they obeyed, they were all fed for 3 years.
Church, if you walk with God long enough, a crisis will arise; if you walk with God long enough, the time will come when your brook will dry up and it will seem as though all hope is gone. But if you have an obedient spirit, God will make a way for you in the midst of a spiritual drought.
More than an obedient spirit, Elijah had a prayerful spirit. As the drought went on day after day, panic spread like wildfire throughout Israel. With no rain, the crops began to fail and hunger gripped the people. With no water and no food, sickness and disease set in. These were tough circumstances, and King Ahab blamed Elijah. But Elijah cor-rectly diagnosed that the drought was because Israel had turned away from God. And to prove that there was only one true and living God, Elijah issued a challenge to Ahab and his prophets of Baal. 450 prophets prayed to Baal and nothing happened. But when Elijah prayed to the Lord, fire came down from heaven.
Church, in times of crisis, we need to have a prayerful spirit. We don’t pray enough to the Lord enough about what’s happening in our lives. But if you don’t take the time to talk with Jesus, you’re missing out on the One who can help you with what you’re going through. In times of crisis, “Ask the Savior to help you.” In times of crisis, ask Him to “Comfort strengthen and keep you. He is willing to aid you. He will carry you through.”
Elijah had been prayerful; Elijah had been obedient. But as we find Elijah today, his faith is weak. And the severity of his crisis is evident in the request he makes to the Lord “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Now, as I hurry in today, I need you to consider this: Elijah’s crisis was highlighted by the fact that his trouble came at a time when he should have been on top of the world. Elijah had just defeated 450 prophets of Baal. Fire had rained down from Heaven; the false prophets were rounded up and put to death. More than that, Elijah had been instrumental in announcing the end of the drought. When the prophets had been defeated, Elijah went back up on Mount Carmel and prayed until God sent a sign that the drought was about to end. And under the power of the Holy Spirit, Elijah ran before Ahab’s chariots from Carmel to Jezreel. This should have been the greatest time in Elijah’s life. But it was right in the midst of all this success that Elijah suffered a crisis of faith.
Church, don’t ever get so caught up in the good times that you forget that trouble is always just a step away. In fact, often our trouble is magnified because it comes at moments when we’ve had great success. It was just after great success in battle that Jepthah over-spoke himself and lost his daughter. It was just after great success in providing for God’s people that Moses let his temper get the better of him and he missed out on the Promised Land. It was just after successfully declaring that Jesus was the Christ that Peter let the Devil use him to try to rebuke Jesus. Trouble is always just a step away. And, if we’re not careful, trouble on the heels of success serves only to heighten our crisis of faith.
This is what has happened to Elijah. After his victory on Mount Carmel, after the rains fell and the drought was over, Ahab’s wife—a woman named Jezebel—declared that she would kill Elijah. She began to hunt Elijah, and suddenly he went from being a hero to being a wanted man. And when crisis came to Elijah on the heels of success, his faith got weak. He ran for his life to a desert cave in the Horeb wilderness. And as we hear his talk to God it appears as though he’s completely given up: “Take away my life. After all I’ve done, after all the faith I’ve shown, I don’t know why You would let this happen to me? I’m no better able to handle this crisis in my life than those who came before me. I’m tired and I’m angry and I’m frustrated and I’m weary. And I’d rather you take me away than have to deal with what I’m dealing with.”
Church, crisis can make you feel like giving up. When trouble visits your house, things can get so bad that you feel like even God has let you down. But when crises come, that’s when you’ve got to be still and know that God is still God. If you’ll be still, the Lord will come to you; if you’ll be still, the Lord will open a door for you; if you’ll be still, God will make a way for you out of no way. When Elijah’s faith got weak, God was still strong.
Elijah prayed for God to take him, and then he went off to sleep. But God had the final say in this matter. God came to Elijah and asked him an important question: “Elijah, what are you doing here? Why would you give up on Me now? After all that I’ve shown you, why would you doubt Me now? After all of the bread and flesh that you ate when others around you were starving, why would you give up on Me now? After all of the meal cakes you ate at the widow’s house for 3 years, why would you give up on Me now? After the victory that I gave you up on Mount Carmel, why would you give up on Me now? Don’t you know that I’m the same God now that I was then. Don’t you know that just like I brought you through before, I’m able to do it again.”
Church, as I close today, God is asking us the same question: “What are you doing here? What are you doing with a bowed-down head? What are you doing with a discouraged outlook? Why would you give up on Me now? After all of the dangers, toils and snares that I have brought you through, why would you give up on Me now? After all of the mountains I’ve brought you over, why would you give up on Me now? Don’t you know that I’m the same today as I was yesterday? Don’t you know that I’ll be the same tomorrow as I am today? Don’t you know that I’m your Way-Maker? Don’t you know that I’m your heart-Fixer? Don’t you know that I’m your burden-Bearer? Don’t you know that I’m the One who will go with you all the way to the end? Don’t you know that I have all power in My hands? Don’t get weak now; don’t give up now. Hold on a little while longer. I won’t let you down.”
You can handle your crisis of faith, you can bear up under the unfair pressures of life if you remember that, through it all, God is still in control. And He’s able to bring you through.
