Set Your Mind (3)
Once you give in to ‘stinking thinking’, your mood dips, you lose energy, Papa God seems distant, prayer seems pointless, sin looks tempting, and your outlook in life becomes bleak. When that happens you become so focused on how you feel that you don’t realise it’s your thinking that’s causing you to feel that way. It happens to the best of us.
Look at Elijah the prophet. The high point in his career was when he called down fire from heaven and defeated the prophets of Baal. It was a World Cup-sized victory! Then word came from Queen Jezebel along these lines: ‘You killed my prophets. Well, guess what? Now I’m going to kill you.’
As a result Elijah plunged headlong into fear.
He felt worthless: ‘I am no better than my ancestors.’ (1 Kings 19:4 NIV)
Hopeless: He ‘ran for his life.’ (1 Kings 19:3 NIV)
Isolated: ‘I am the only one left.’ (1 Kings 19:10 NIV)
Unable to cope: ‘I have had enough.’ (1 Kings 19:4)
He wanted to die: ‘Take my life.’ (1 Kings 19:4 NIV)
So how did God respond to Elijah? In four simple ways:
(1) He helped him to start eating right and get proper rest.
(2) He spoke to him in ‘a still small voice’ (1 Kings 19:12 NKJV), reassuring him and giving him courage.
(3) He assured Elijah that he was not alone: ‘I have… 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal.’ (1 Kings 19:18 NKJV)
(4) He gave him another mission to fulfil.
There will always be a ‘Jezebel’ threatening to undo your best efforts and bring you down. The key is to learn to control your thinking!