Imagine this: After years of work and sacrifice, you experience the greatest achievement of your life. But when the excitement wears off, you don’t feel victorious, just depleted and alone.
Elijah’s Confrontations and Battles
The prophet Elijah finds himself in a similar state in 1 Kings 18. Living in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Elijah speaks God’s words to a people who have long rejected God and turned to worshiping idols. In his first appearance, Elijah announces to the idol-worshiping King Ahab that there will be no rain until Elijah says so. Then Elijah has to hide from the angry king and his wife, Jezebel.
After three years of drought, the Lord tells Elijah to go back and confront Ahab. In a stunning face-to-face showdown between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20–40), God shows up in a mighty way for all to see, and Elijah is proven to be a prophet of the one true God. The drought ends, Elijah is vindicated, and the prophets of Baal are no more.
It’s a fairy-tale ending to a Sunday-School-ready Bible story. But Elijah’s story doesn’t end there. Despite God’s victory, Ahab and Jezebel do not repent and follow the Lord. In fact, Jezebel is enraged and threatens Elijah’s life.
Once again, Elijah runs and hides. That’s when the stress of years of opposing the evil powers that be finally overwhelms him. Perhaps he feels like he’s back where he started; that nothing he did made a difference. He’s tired of fighting, tired of running, tired of the loneliness of obeying God when no one else does. First Kings 19:4 captures Elijah’s condition:
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
In contemporary language, we might speak of Elijah’s state of mind as an existential crisis, a mental health crisis, or depression.
Your Mental Health Doesn’t Define Your Faith
Elijah had walked with God for a long time. He said what the Lord told him to say, went where God told him to go, and did what God told him to do. God even raised someone from the dead, answering Elijah’s prayers (1 Kings 17:20–24). As far as we can tell from the biblical account, Elijah’s faith in God was as solid as any human’s faith can be.
Still, Elijah asks God to let him die. That tells us that a mental health diagnosis or crisis does not signal a lack of faith. Christians with depression, anxiety, or other mental health struggles sometimes blame themselves (or feel blamed by others) for a lack of faith in God.
We all have human limitations and weaknesses. Living in a fallen world impacts our bodies and minds as well as our spirit. Elijah, despite his great faith, still crashed into the limits of his body and mind.
Echoing God’s Response in Our Daily Lives
God answers Elijah’s desperate prayer not with a rebuke or a pep talk, but with immediate, tangible care.
And [Elijah] lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:5–8)
God doesn’t answer Elijah in words, at least not right away. Instead, God supplies Elijah’s immediate needs. In today’s addiction and mental health recovery, we hear of a similar strategy in the acronym HALT. Before making decisions, check whether you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. (Elijah could have been all four!) Then delay decision-making until those conditions are addressed. That’s what God did for Elijah. God gives Elijah time to sleep, good food to eat, and even some companionship in the form of the angel of the Lord. Only then does Elijah continue his journey.
God does not express any frustration, disapproval, or disappointment in Elijah. God made us with limits on purpose. God did not make us to be always working, always achieving, always busy—even when it’s God’s work! We are meant to rest, eat, and spend time with others, especially in hard times. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our mental health is take a nap.
God does not leave Elijah under the broom tree forever. Once Elijah has regained some strength, he goes to Horeb, the same mountain where God spoke to Moses from a burning bush and showed His presence to the Israelites through clouds and thunder. In a cave on Mount Horeb, Elijah sees a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. For Elijah, though, God chooses to speak in the silence, in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12).
God Gives Us What We Need
I wonder if God chose to speak gently, softly, because that’s what Elijah needed. He had already witnessed the great power and glory of God. What he needed in his state of confusion and sadness was God’s gentle care.
Although God spoke softly, He still kindly corrected Elijah’s misperception of being the only person in Israel dedicated to God, and He redirected Elijah to a new mission.
In Elijah’s crisis of depression and fear, God gave Elijah exactly what he needed to recover and be renewed. When Elijah felt like he couldn’t even move, God fed him and let him rest. When Elijah felt lonely and confused, God came to him with news of other faithful people (1 Kings 19:18) and gave him new work to do.
If you’ve ever felt alone, discouraged, anxious, or depressed, notice God’s gentleness and care of Elijah. He did not abandon His prophet in his time of mental crisis. He did not blame or rebuke him. He also didn’t immediately heal Elijah. Instead, God shepherded Elijah through a process of rest, recovery, and renewal. Let us, too, turn to God in our distress and trust Him to shepherd us through it.
Scripture: ESV®.
Learn more about how God meets you during your times of need and cares for you during mental health crises in Jennifer K. Londgren’s new Bible study.
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