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***This is part 4 of a 7-part series on Wilderness Wanderings. You can view the rest of the series here. You can get a printable workbook version of this series by visiting our shop. Today, we are looking at how spiritual depression can occur during our times in the wilderness.***
Wilderness Wandering Lesson #2: Remembering past victories can help to steady our heart in the midst of our current despair.
Beauty in the Midst of Spiritual Depression
There’s a moment of breathlessness that comes from reaching the summit of a hike, that moment when you turn around and see, in sweeping array, not only the trail that led you to the place you are standing but also everything else for miles around. When I was in Austria, I took a trip out to the countryside to look at some of the snow-capped Alps in Lower Austria. Though my friend and I didn’t hike to the top (we took a tram), we wanted to reach the summit (2076m, the equivalent of almost 1.3 miles high). From where the tram left us, the town that we ate lunch in looked like a toy set and even the mountains surrounding us looked like hills in comparison. From that high, all the worries of school and being far from home were gone from my mind as I just stood speechless watching the sky.
It was at that moment though that the sky got a little cloudy and the wind started to pick up. We wanted to hike a little, so we hiked the trail toward the top of the mountain, with cattle lazily grazing along the rocky path. Quickly, the picturesque scene turned gray. We made it to the summit, but the mountain had clouded over, so much so that it was difficult to see straight in front of you. We quickly walked back down and waited out the fog in a small cafe, trying to warm up our hands with a coffee, before making our way to the tram.
That hike was beautiful and totally worth our short brush with the fog. But, what I’ve found is that our lives sometimes mirror that hike, but the fog can be much more dangerous. Sometimes, our lives are steady, and we exist in the happy medium of contentment and love. At other times though, our lives can be a stormy cycle of highs and lows, mountains and valleys. In our case, we were on a mountain, a mountain where we were elated. We had traveled far to get there and wanted to rest in the view and the glory. But, it was on this mountain, that we had traveled far to see and done a lot of work to get to (including a 1-hour train ride and a flustered conversation in German), that we experienced a storm that clouded our experiences and made us doubt if it was really worth it.
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Elijah: Depair in the Wilderness after a Mountain-top Experience
Elijah the prophet experienced his own brush with the wilderness right after he experienced the high of his life. He was no stranger to the wilderness after relying on God’s provision in 1 Kings 17. In 1 Kings 18, he is able to testify to God’s glory and work as he goes through a showdown with the prophets of Baal. He actually gets to see the fire of Yahweh fall from heaven and rid the people of the prophets of Baal!
If we saw these things, we might be tempted to say that we would never doubt God. After seeing this, we might be elated, speechless, high on our mountaintop moment. But, for Elijah, the fog rolled in. In chapter 19, Jezebel sends word to Elijah that she was planning on killing him as soon as she could get her hands on him. Elijah panics and runs for his life into the wilderness. There, he lays down and prays for God to take his life (v. 4). Sometimes, our wilderness moments can lead us to places like this. Our vision can get cloudy if it’s focused on our circumstances that may stormy and volatile. And, in those moments, dark despair can set in, and we may think it would be better to just give up.
If you are in that moment, remember that God does not leave Elijah there, and he doesn’t want to leave you there either. Instead, he says, “Get up and eat (v. 5). After Elijah eats twice, he goes on a journey forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God. There, Elijah waits, first through a great wind, then through an earthquake, and lastly through a fire. In each of these places, he does not hear God’s voice. Finally, he hears it in the soft whisper, as God asks him “What are you doing here Elijah?” (v. 13) Elijah responds by saying, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life” (v. 14). Elijah feels this despair because he has forgotten what God just showed him. In the desert when he was hungry, God was there with provision. He had forgotten that in the showdown, God was there with provision. When we turn our eyes away from God to focus on our fractured circumstances, it can lead us to doubt. But, one remedy for that doubt is not only to remember the character of God but also to remember how God has exhibited that character in previous actions of faithfulness. We can trust in him not only because of what we know from the Bible but also because of what we know from our own lives. So, if you are in a wilderness period in your life, pause and remember God’s past faithfulness instead of dwelling on your despair. These reminders can help us to remember that even in our darkest times, God will carry us through.
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