giving up

I’m no hero. It seems I get a lot more wrong in life than right, and I let down more people than I rescue. But today as I read in 1 Kings 19 I was reminded that even people we call heroes are just men and women like me.

In this chapter Elijah, the prophet of God is fleeing for his life from Queen Jezebel. Hiding in the wilderness, he sat down under a bush and said this prayer (v4): “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

Elijah gave up. With all the mighty miracles he’d performed, and the amazing providence God had shown him, his courage still failed and his spirit proved weak. He lost sight of God and looked at his plight as though he had to solve it. And he quit; he lay down and asked to die.

That seems a lot more like me. When the going gets tough, sometimes I get going but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I whine and moan. Sometimes I even get angry with God. And never have those times been as serious as my government wanting me dead.

It encourages me that Elijah had this episode. It encourages me even more that God didn’t get angry, but encouraged him through it and rescued him once again. And it encourages me that from this low point Elijah rose up again to become the respected and feared prophet of God he was called to be.

Me at my worst isn’t who I am in Christ. Me at my best isn’t really me, but Christ working in me. I can’t think of anything more comforting as I struggle each day not to be as weak as I was the day before.