¶ Welcome to Starting Right
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right . I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day . So grab your cup of coffee , sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right . Good morning everyone , and welcome to another
¶ Elijah's Stress and Exhaustion
day . Hey , have you ever felt like you're just tired with the stress of being you ? I think most of us have at some point or another . Today I want to talk about a fellow from Scripture who was exactly like that . His name happens to be Elijah .
We're going to pick up his story in chapter 19 of the book of 1 Kings , but we need to remember the setup here as we get to it .
Elijah had just won the battle on Mount Carmel with all of the prophets of Baal , and those prophets were now dead because God had just sent fire down from heaven to receive Elijah's sacrifice , whereas the prophets of Baal could get nothing to happen with their gods .
But now in chapter 19 , starting in verse 1 , it reads this way Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword . So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say May the gods deal with me , be it ever so severely , if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them .
Elijah was afraid and he ran for his life . When he came to Beersheba and Judah , he left his servant there , while he himself went a day's journey into the desert . He came to a broom tree , sat down under it and prayed that he might die . I have had enough , lord , he said .
¶ Lessons from Elijah's Journey
Take my life . I am no better than my ancestors . Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep . An angel touched him and said Get up and eat . He looked around and there , by his head , was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water . He ate and drank and then lay down again .
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said Get up and eat , for the journey is too much for you . So he got up and ate and drank . Strengthened by that food , he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb , the mountain of God , and there he went into a cave and spent the night .
Well , we can sometimes criticize Elijah for being afraid of Queen Jezebel when he had just seen God bring such a tremendous victory up on Mount Carmel . I think most of us can understand how we react when we are exhausted , when we're tired , when we're under pressure .
It's at those times that we are generally far from our best and we need to have something refresh us on the inside . We will never be able to produce results outside of us when the inside of us is weak , and Elijah had just spent a tremendous amount of physical , emotional and spiritual energy in his battle on Mount Carmel and now he was drained inside .
¶ Finding Renewal and Strength
We can get to that point , too , where we have been giving out to others . We've been pouring into other people , trying to touch them and impact them in some way . We've been serving our family , we've been serving our community , we've been serving our church , and we just get drained on the inside and we just get tired of being who we are .
Can I give you three quick things this morning that will help all of us when we're at that place . First of all , we need to keep our proper perspective . In those moments , it's not about us , it's about what God has for us . We need to be able to seek Him first in all the things that we do .
Secondly , we need to remember that our walk with God is a journey . It's not about being great in every moment , but it's all about having a life of faith . David is known as a man after God's own heart , and we know how badly he messed up in his life , but those moments did not define him . It was his life that defined him .
Thirdly , we need to make sure that we preserve some strength in us , that we don't use it all up too fast , and I'm talking about emotional and spiritual and physical strength , all of those things . If we use it up , we need to take time to get it refilled and refueled within us before we go on .
Otherwise we will step out and we will feel defeated and struggle and a sense of failure and negativity can overcome us . So today , my friends , I encourage you with this let's learn from Elijah , who obeyed God , did everything God had told him to do , but he still got tired and depressed and he needed to be refreshed .
And I encourage you this morning if you need to be refreshed , you take some time to do just that . Step back from what you are pushing into and let God refresh you .
Don't let yourself get to the point where you're just tired of the stress of being you , but know that in that place , at that time , that's when God will come and will minister to you the most and will give you the strength that
¶ Closing and Tomorrow's Invitation
you need . Have a great day , my friends . We'll talk again tomorrow . Have a great day , my friends . We'll talk again tomorrow . Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday , right here on , Starting Right with Danny Mac .