Author Irving Stone has spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life…have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished…and they go to work. “They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time they’re knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they’ve accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do [ 1. Crossroads, Issue No. 7, p. 18].” It’s important to persevere, that’s a great fact. But, what do you do when you hit an impasse? What do you do when you feel like giving up?

1 Kings 19:1-8 (NLT)
1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods also kill me if by this time tomorrow I have failed to take your life like those whom you killed.” 3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the desert, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and saw some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 Then the angel of the LORD came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the LORD said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I alone am left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

ILLUSTRATION: Refusing to Be Defeated by Discouragement
Here’s a man sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He’s only recently retired from the post office, and he’s sitting there when his first Social Security check is delivered. He’s very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, “Is this what life is going to be from now on–sitting on the porch waiting for my check to arrive?” He decided he wouldn’t settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him all the blessings and the capacities, the unique things that were in him. The list was long because he listed everything he could think of and in the list was the fact that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother’s recipe for fried chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices. So he went to a nearby restaurant and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu. So he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and a string of restaurants. Eventually Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across all of America. He finally retired a second time (all this happened, you remember, after he had retired from the postal service), and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year till his death. Now here was a man who did not allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. He took a look at it recognized it was there, but then went on to look at what he had with which to deal with it and used that.

• At times, people are tempted to give up.
• The heart of God is for people to be happy, free, and joyful.

Elijah Was Ready to Give-Up

• Ahab was a wicked king. He was the seventh king of Israel.
• Seven is supposed to mean something in God’s economy. It means perfection.
  • Ahab was perfect all right, perfectly evil.
  • He was a mess of a king.
• For all the wickedness of his reign, a famine came.
  • According to Luke 4:25, the famine lasted 3 years and 6 months.
• In forty-two months,
  • The grass turned from green to yellow.
  • The ground cracked from the dryness.
  • The skin and bone carcasses of the animals fell to the earth.
  • The smell of decaying flesh was everywhere.
• Famine was a sure sign to a covenant Israelite that the blessings of God had departed.
  • God promised Israel, He would bless them coming out and going in.
  • Famine was a covenant sign of departure.
  • Israel didn’t have to have a sign waved in the air, saying “The Lord is not with you.” They didn’t have to be very sharp spiritually to discern it.
  • All they had to do was check the ground.
• For many days the famine existed
  • From the earth’s point of view, ‘many days’ means much suffering.
  • From heavens point of view, ‘many days’ means much mercy.
  • Heaven is always waiting for earth to repent and turn to the Lord.
• Elijah prays one of the shortest most powerful prayers this earth has ever heard. The fire fell from heaven and licked up the wood, the water and the sacrifice.
  • All the people who witnessed these events found out that day that God is a God of fire.
• Elijah wanted to live life excellently and do great things for God.
  • He had great dreams to bring Israel back to God.
  • But things did not turn out like he thought!
• He became depressed, even though he experienced a great victory.
• He felt like giving up when he understood Jezebel wanted to kill him.

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How to Protect Yourself from the Feeling of Giving-Up

Keep Up With Your Physical Needs

• Depression often follows depletion.
• Ah, you mean the answer is physical and not spiritual?
• Notice, our text indicates Elijah was fatigued.

1 Kings 18:46 (NLT)
46 Now the LORD gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.

• He ran before Ahab’s Chariot all the way to Jezreel, a trip of 16 miles.
  • This trip came after an entire day of ministry on Carmel.
• The scripture says the hand of the Lord was on him to do this.
  • But the hand of the Lord lifted off of him also. The anointing doesn’t stay on you, perpetually.
  • If it did, you would burn up and burn out.
  • While you’re under the anointing, you don’t feel tired. But when the Spirit lifts off of you, you return to your own physical strength.
• When Jezebel threatened to kill him, he travels day and night to Beersheba. That’s a 95 mile trip from Jezreel.
  • Elijah was depleted.
• The truth is, Jezebel did not really want to kill Elijah, if she did, she certainly would not have sent a messenger to Elijah telling him that.
  • She would have just sent a hit man to do the job. Jezebel was just trying to scare Elijah.
  • She wanted to slow him down and get him off of his game.
  • Killing Elijah would have made a martyr out of him and complicated her rule amongst the people who already were highly motivated seeing the mighty miracle God preformed in their midst.
• Emotionally, we are most vulnerable after a great effort or when faced with real physical needs.

Get the Right Amount of Rest

• Elijah slept.
• Sometimes the best thing you can do is go to sleep.
• A bow that is always bent will break. That’s a guarantee.

The world is run by tired men. – Winston Churchill.

ILLUSTRATION: How Many People Doing the Work
Here is one reason why people are so tired. There aren’t as many people working as you actually thought.

• The population of this nation is 200 million and 84 million are over 64 years of age which leaves a 116 million to do the work.
• People under the age of 16 total 75 million which leaves 41 million to do the work.
  There are 22 million who are employed by the government, which leaves only 19 million to do the work.
• Four million are in the armed forces which leaves 15 million to do the work.
• Deduct 14,800,000 in state and city offices which leaves 200,000 to do the work.
• There are 188,000 in hospitals and insane asylums which leave just 12,000 to do the work.
• There are 11,998 people in jail which leaves only 2 people to do the work and that’s you and me brother and aren’t you tired of doing everything yourself?
• This is a comical look at work but haven’t there been times when you felt that you were doing it all by yourself?

Get Your Diet Right

• Elijah ate and drank.
• An angel of God cooking a meal for Elijah communicates clearly God is interested in your physical state.
• Notice the angel fed him food.
• The angel did not…
  • Anoint him.
  • Lift tiredness off of him supernaturally
  • Lead Elijah to pray a prayer for strength.
• What kind of meal do you think the angel fed him?
  • Was it fast food full of cholesterol, sugar, and carcinogens?
  • Do you think it was a balanced meal meat to fuel his body as food is supposed to do?
• The phrase “It’s better to burn out than rust out” is not a God thought.
  • You have to rest like you know you should.
  • You have adjust your diet and eat quality food like you know you should.

I have prayed hundreds, if not thousands, of times for the Lord to heal me-and he finally healed me of the need to be healed.” –Tim Hansel

• Take care of the physical man and the physical man will take care of you.
• Proper diet, exercise, and getting in shape are good God ideas.
• They will protect you against thoughts of giving up.
• If you let yourself go physically, you’re a half step away from letting yourself go emotionally.
• Letting yourself go in one area, affects all the other areas also.
• Keeping things tight physically is like rain falling. It blesses not just the grass, but entire Eco system.

ILLUSTRATION: How Not to Exercise
A visiting speaker was impressed by the enthusiasm our Christian school students showed in their physical education class. “I exercise, too,” he sighed, faintly smiling at our pastor. “Every morning I awaken to the alarm, jump from bed and run around the block six times.” As our pastor expressed surprise and offered hearty praise, the man continued, “Then I kick the block under the bed and go back to sleep.”

• This is not what God had in mind for exercise.

Call to Action:

What are you going to do with this today? If you are depleted are you going to do what you can do and let God do what only He can do? Are you going to put some importance on the outer man? Are you going to take some extra rest? Are you going to put yourself on an exercise program?

Question: How have you combated the feeling to quit? What did you do to overcome it? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

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References