Joy in this Journey By: FaithLine

When the Journey is Too Much for You

• Roy Grayson • Season 1 • Episode 16

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What happens when you find yourself in overwhelming despair, unsure of what steps to take next? Join brother Roy Grayson as we explore the extraordinary journey of the prophet Elijah, a tale of faith tested by fear and solitude, and the profound ways in which divine intervention can illuminate even the darkest paths. Through Elijah's harrowing flight into the wilderness, threatened by the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, we uncover a powerful narrative of hope and resilience. Experience the transformative guidance he receives at his lowest point, when God sends an angel to provide sustenance and strength, encouraging us to trust in a purpose greater than our immediate struggles.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Joy in this Journey podcast by Faithline. Join us as we bring you weekly episodes on Bible devotionals to empower you to live in faith. By faith, through God's grace, Find joy in your journey today.

Speaker 2:

Hey, god bless everyone. How are you? My name is Roy. I'm going to be reading and talking about the prophet Elijah.

Speaker 2:

The very popular story in the Old Testament was found in 1 Kings, the book of 1 Kings, chapter 19, verses 1 through 9. It was read name the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent the messenger unto Elijah, saying so let the gods do to me and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, about this time, for one of them. By tomorrow, about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, where it belonged, to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said Is it enough? It is enough Now, o Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was a cake baking on the coils and a crush of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And then the angel of the lord came again the second time and touched him and said arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink and went, in the strength of that meat, 40 days and 40 nights unto harab, the mount of god. And he came through there into a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the lord came to him and he said unto him what doeth thou hear, elijah? Amen, praise god.

Speaker 2:

Um many great stories in the bible. The bible is filled. The great stories um have wonderful, powerful messages that can edify your life in many different ways. Um, I like this story about elijah um to give context. I know it's very popular story, very common story. If you know, if you read the word, if you grew up in a church, you know the story. But give a context and backstory. Uh of elijah um previous chapter, it's chapter 18 uh, where god uses elijah to send fire down from heaven to burn a sacrifice. It sounds crazy, but let me go a little further back in those times there were and many kings did evil before the Lord and few did good before the Lord. King Ahab was his reign. He was a king. His wife was Jezebel and his wife turned Ahab's heart and the heart of the people of Israel away from God, not to obey his laws, his commandments and his ways, from God, not to obey His laws, his commandments and His ways.

Speaker 2:

They served a deity or a god called Baal. This deity they believed was a god that gave fertility to women and to agriculture, and they would sacrifice to this deity and bring their children to the fire abominable things. That was not pleasing me for the lord. Um, this is how far astray the people of god have gone from the lord. And so god lifted up elijah to use him to turn the people's heart back to him. Uh, when god's mercy, no matter how far we've come, he's still there in his mercy and grace to bring us back when he's a plan and purpose for our lives. He will use anything and anyone, because god's a god of works in mysterious ways, and he will use people and things and circumstances to get our attention. And so in chapter 18, it says how the prophet Elijah goes to King Ahab and tells him let's see who's a real God. Is it going to be your God that you serve, the deity Baal, or my God? And one part of the verse of that chapter really impacted me is when the prophet Elijah asks the people for how long you want to be in two options. Two, how long basically doubt in the lord? How long you're gonna doubt god of abraham, isaac and jacob? How long you're gonna doubt him when you've seen and heard from your fathers the stories on the testaments of what he brought us to, he got us out of egypt and what he's done for us. And now you want to go astray and serve this God, god Baal. And so God in his mercy hears the prayer of Elijah. But before Elijah prayed, they had 450 prophets of Baal, the false deity God, and they tried to pray and pray and pray that the God Baal would consume the sacrifice, a burnt offering. But there was no fire. So whatever which God would enter in, fire would be the true God. And so for many hours they tried, got to an extreme point. They started cutting themselves. And you can read the story, chapter 18. I'm just going to get context to chapter 19.

Speaker 2:

The point is that, um, and not to to small and minimize what god did, what he did was glorious. God answered elijah's call and prayer with fire from heaven, something supernatural, miraculous and powerful and glorious, if you allow the lord to put you there in the spirit to understand what happened in front of all these people. God responded and consumed the sacrifice and showed he's a real god, he's a one true god, the only god, the almighty god, nothing else is above him and reminded them who he is. He did the same thing in the desert with the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. He opened the red sea and the judgments upon israel. I mean of egypt, I'm sorry, he took out his people out of egypt and so he just showed to demonstrate his glory again, to turn the hearts of his people back to him. A glorious moment for the people of israel, through god's mercy and grace.

Speaker 2:

Um, and also, at that time, there was a drought for three years that god used elijah, the prophet, to prophesize there will be no rain for three years until he said so. Um, and after this amazing, glorious demonstration of god's power, consuming the sacrifice, he also uh, god also allowed it to rain, a great rain, basically saying there's life back on the land, because when the drought, there's no, there's no grass, there's nothing to feed your agriculture, your cattle, water, it's cows, people are dying, there's no meat. It's a tough time to live. I can't imagine. But yes, and so bring us all back to chapter 19. This happens, and so, after this demonstration god's glory and power, king ahab goes to back to his castle and instead of telling what great wonders and glory god has did and demonstrated to his people, he complains to his wife in the negative context, how Elijah killed all the prophets by other, seeing the negative instead of seeing the power, turning his heart around and humbling himself before the lord, he went to complain to his wife about, um, how elijah um did all these things and how he slain all the prophets with the sword. On verse one it says and so this woman, jezebel, gets very upset and basically threatens elijah and saying well, the same way you killed my prophets, I'm gonna kill you by tomorrow. In modern terms, um, she said it very poetically, but in simple terms, I'm gonna kill you. She threatened his life by tomorrow. This time you'll be dead. And so when elijah hears this news, he runs away and drops off his uh, his servant in bersheba and goes on his journey. And that's where we start reading chapter 19, verses 1 to 9.

Speaker 2:

I will say for many years I've heard this story preached in church and sermons and powerful messages. The Lord used all the leaders and the pastors to preach a message and it got very edified through the word. But I judged elijah for many years. Um, even I read notes were judging him, until god, like, said hello and tapped me on the shoulder because my question was how can a man of god be used so powerfully by god, seeing fire come down from heaven? I mean, this is not something to see every day. This is not even in ancient times, very, very popular. That was just a certain time when the Israelites were in the desert and God used the pillar of fire at night. It's a glory. I'd not, you would see it. But after that, this is many years after that, there's been kings and dynasties, um after, and so what god did was powerful. So I'm like I judged elijah and said how, seeing this and you hear this woman going to threaten your life and you, you're scared, you run away, come on man what's?

Speaker 2:

what's wrong with you and just call upon god to save you again. And then, god, he reminded me. How many times do you see my glory when you're in my house, in your life? I demonstrate my power, I manifest my glory, I teach you, I touch you, I talk to you, I minister you, I cry, I thank you, I feel his presence and I'm so grateful when I get up from that powerful experience. And then the next day, the next week, that same night, something happens and I lose everything God gave me.

Speaker 2:

And he reminded me he's not done with any of us, even men and women of God, today. He's not done with any of us. There's still areas in our lives God has to work on. And so I was like okay, lord, okay God, I'm sorry, sorry, elijah, for judging you. I apologize, but I thank God that he ministered and corrected me that that even this great man that saw your glory, um, and you, you did a miraculous, powerful out of these world, all this world, things still had air in his lives that need to be worked on. And you see him run. He runs for his life once he gets threatened by the queen, a king ahab's wife, jezebel.

Speaker 2:

And so as many times in our lives to bring it to modern time, to us make it personal, where we christians, uh, believers of god, believe of his power, believe in the east of those miracles that we've experienced, miracles in our lives, whether we physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, whatever situation god has brought you through that you thought he couldn't know when I was done and he put his hand in there in your situation and brought you through. And still you know, we've seen, we hear things, or I think a person, I'll hear something negative about me or, uh, the enemy will throw darts in my mind and I'll accept it and believe it, instead of saying wait, no, and that will cause me to get in a path that I shouldn't be on, like Elijah was when he heard this message of this threat for his life. The right thing to do now I know I'm learning as well is to run to God. Father, help me, strengthen me, protect me, protect me.

Speaker 2:

But sometimes we it messages of feeling pain, um, sorrow, sadness may get us on a journey we're not supposed to be on and put elijah on this journey to, I would say, depression. If you read it clearly, it looks like he was depressed because in verse four it says at the end of verse four it says oh lord, take away my life, for I'm not better than my father's. He wanted to die. Elijah wanted to die. He was so depressed that he felt he failed God, that he didn't do right, that his life was being threatened. He wanted to die from this message of being threatened. He was a dark place at this time.

Speaker 2:

He was sad and we've all been there or we will be there in our lives. Uh, this journey, this walk in faith with the lord, it's not for the faint of heart, it's for those that are courageous in the lord and stand firm on his promises, no matter what we see, hear or feel. And there'll be times that we will cry, and there's moments we will be sad and there's moments that we won't understand and there's moments that may break us. But god's here to build us up and it's all working together for our good in jesus name. And so, yeah, elijah was very sad, he was depressed, he wanted to. And so, yeah, elijah was very sad, he was depressed, he wanted to, he wanted, he not wanted to live anymore. That's extreme. The enemy brought him, he allowed himself to get that. He wanted to not live anymore. I don't know if you ever felt that way, or have you had those thoughts? And if you have, you're not alone, brothers and sisters, and I can tell you that god is there to help you get out of that, if you're in a dark place, for whatever. But whatever the reason may be, I don't know, god knows your circumstantial situation and where you're at that moment, but he's there to take you out.

Speaker 2:

And so the story goes that he laid in a tree. The angel touched him, which we read over so quickly. An angel God sent. God was like listen, angel, please go talk to my son. I'm preparing something great for him right now. I see what he's doing, please help him out. And tapped him to wake him up, told him to eat and drink.

Speaker 2:

And there's many times in our lives that happens. We're in a circumstance, situation and God will send someone a message, a person, a friend, a family member. Sometimes, even you know modern time we're scrolling and there's something that we see that wow, that was God that sent me that, or on television, or reading his word. Or sometimes we're so sad let's be honest you don't want to read the word, you don't want to pray, you're in your honest. You don't want to read the Word, you don't want to pray, you're in your feelings and you don't want to pray. Read the Bible. You don't want to do anything, you're sad or depressed and you feel these dark thoughts and God, one way or another, will intervene and get your attention. That's what he did with Elijah. He sent an angel, but Elijah was so determined, so sad, he didn't want to get up. The angel had to tap him twice to get him up, to continue on this journey preparing to meet God.

Speaker 2:

And what impacts me, I want to bring it home, is verse 9. It says he came. This is Elijah. He came thither into a cave and lodged there. So he came to a cave and lodged there. So's like you make that your home now, right. And so Elijah made a cave his new home. He's like this is how I'm going to live now.

Speaker 2:

He ran away after seeing God's glory. He heard the threat, got sad and depressed, wanted to take his life and ran. And God sent an angel, so, seeing all the god intervening, and still ended up in a cave, a dark place. There's no light, there's no hope, there's nothing there. It's like a dead end, if you want to put it in today's terms, dead end. There's nothing there and was ready to die, give up.

Speaker 2:

It says he came to a cave.

Speaker 2:

He lodged there.

Speaker 2:

But this is the way I love and this is the one to to emphasize.

Speaker 2:

And when god ministered my life, I wanted to share. No matter what dark places you may be at, what cave you might be at, what um thought, feeling, emotion, um situation has put you in this dark place and you said i'm'm stuck here, I don't know, I'm getting out of here. Whether it be depression or sadness, or maybe health condition, whatever it is, or thoughts from the enemy, you're not going to make it, you're useless, you have no worth, you have no value. The devil throws, it loves to throw all these negative thoughts and if you allow him to, it will really affect you, your heart, your soul, your mind, and really do damage to you. But this is the part where god comes to say behold, the word lord came to him and he said unto him what are you, what do thou hear, elijah? God said el, what are you doing here? God didn't send him there. So if God's asking Elijah why he there, it's saying I didn't send you here, god knows why he's there, god sees all, he knows all. But he asked Elijah what?

Speaker 1:

are you?

Speaker 2:

doing here? To make Elijah reflect and make him say what? Because he didn't send him here. And so, when we get to these places, I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, friends and family. God didn't God wanted us to be in those places. Those dark places are not what God wants us to be. So when an enemy wants to bring you there and take you there, don't let him. It's easier said than done.

Speaker 2:

There's areas in our lives, guys, that we're going, whether it be from past trauma or situations that we've experienced yesterday, 10 years ago, 20, 30 years ago, whatever it may be. God wants to heal those areas in your life and he's there to help us, if we allow him to. The same way he came to Elijah when he was in a cave. I want you to envision a cave where there is there's many different caves, yes, in the world, but in this case it's a cave in the mountains. There's no other side. It's a dark place, who knows what kind of animals or anything that could attack him or hurt him or kill him, but he didn't care. He was so sad and depressed that he didn't care. He made that his new home and God's saying what are you doing there? I didn't, nor do I want you to be in the dark, in death. Christ came to give us life, and life abundantly. He came to save us, transform us, and he is more than capable and able to do it, if we allow him to. So I want to let my brothers and sisters know, if you're listening, god's there to help you, no matter what situation you're, in what place. That makes you feel dark, that feels like you're alone or you're sad, or you're depressed, and whatever thing that made you feel this way, that put you on that path. Like Elijah, he went from seeing God's glory to the next day or a couple of days later, running, turning around and running far away, afraid, scared, doubtful, depressed, with no hope in his life. That's what he felt like, all darkness, and that's what he may feel right now, the way you're feeling dark. Oh God, I heard your word, I felt your presence, but look at me now. I failed you, I messed up. I had a tough day at school, at work, at home, in my neighborhood. These people bother me, they're calling me, they're affecting me. Whatever the case may be, there's nothing hard for the Lord. There's nothing difficult for the Lord if you allow him, if you continue reading.

Speaker 2:

God glorifies himself in a powerful way. He brings Elijah out. He brings him out of that cave because God doesn't want us to be there. God didn't want Elijah to be there. God had to deal with him and God will deal with every one of us in a specific way to deal with those areas in our lives and bring us to the other side of that for his glory. There's a plan and purpose for every one of our lives, and what he started, he shall finish.

Speaker 2:

So, no matter what we're going through, no matter what you're going through, my brothers and sisters, I just want to encourage you through this word that don't stay in a cave. God's going to bring you out. So this momentary suffering is for eternal blessing, a weight of glory, it says in the New Testament. It's temporary. We're striving for eternal life and when Jesus help and in his name, through his spirit, we're going to make it to eternal life. So I just want to encourage you no matter what you're going through, it's for a moment, but there's hope in the Lord and there's strength in the Lord. Reach for him, go to him. Don't give up, don't give in. God's there to help you and he will take you out of any circumstance or situation.

Speaker 2:

The devil is a liar. I rebuke him in the name of jesus christ, and god will bring you out to the other side, because he's more than capable and evil. The same god of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The same story's old testament of him opening the red sea of god, sending fire down from heaven. It's the same god we serve today. So believe in him, trust in him and know that he's there for you. He's there with you right now, as you hear this message. He's there for you. He's there with you right now, as you hear this message. He's there for you. So say encourage my brothers and sisters, I love you dearly and may God bring you out the cave, bring you out of the dark places. He doesn't want you to be there, he wants to take you out. He will take you out in Jesus name. I believe it.

Speaker 2:

Father, I come before. Your presence is here and it's moving in a mighty way to do in our lives. You're here to liberate, heal, deliver, transform, mend the brokenhearted. Father God, there's nothing that you can't do. You raised the dead, father God, and I believe in your power. I believe in your glory. I thank you for your mercy. If we've sinned, father God, when we've sinned, please forgive us. When you're blood, father God, wash us and repent for our false errors and wrongs. And what we're going through, father God, it's to see your glory. Please take us out of these places that we're in right now and, father God, give us the strength to overcome and pursue you in Jesus' name, going forth that we plan and purpose in our lives be fulfilled. I thank you, father God, because you're more than capable and able to do more than we ask. I trust in you and I thank you and declare that you shall do it, father God, in all of our lives. In the name of Jesus, amen, say bless and God bless you guys.

Speaker 1:

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