32 | Peace and Hope for Struggling Christian Women: Finding Jesus in Depression

EPISODE 32

Do you feel stuck in survival mode—spiritually weary, emotionally drained, and wondering why nothing seems to be changing even though you’ve been praying?

You’re not alone. Many Christian women quietly carry the weight of depression, feeling defeated, struggling to hold it together, and questioning where God is in it all.

In this episode of Godly Habits, Brooklynn and Dr. Mason Howe walk through the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and share a biblical, whole-person perspective on discouragement. You’ll hear how God meets you in your lowest moments—with care, truth, and renewed purpose—so you can begin to experience peace, hope, and even small glimpses of joy again.

In This Episode:

A biblical look at depression and discouragement through Elijah’s story

• How gratitude can gently shift your perspective when everything feels heavy
• Encouragement for when you feel weary, stuck, or unsure what God is doing

What You’ll Hear:

• How God responds to Elijah’s lowest moment—and what that reveals about His heart for you
• Why feeling depressed or discouraged does not mean your faith is failing
• A simple, grace-filled way to begin finding clarity, hope, and direction again

Quick Win Practice:

If you’ve been feeling stuck, weary, or overwhelmed… this week’s quick win is a simple way to help you reconnect with what God has already been building in you.

It’s not about fixing everything overnight. It’s about beginning to notice where God may already be at work—bringing steadiness, clarity, and a renewed sense of hope for the future.

Sometimes the first step toward peace isn’t doing more… it’s recognizing that Jesus is still with you, even here.

Bible Verses Referenced:

1 Kings 18:38 — God answers Elijah by fire, demonstrating His power

• 1 Kings 19:2 — Jezebel threatens Elijah’s life
• 1 Kings 19:4 — Elijah expresses deep discouragement and asks to die
• 1 Kings 19:5–7 — God provides rest and food, caring for Elijah physically
• 1 Kings 19:9 — God asks Elijah a question, engaging him personally
• 1 Kings 19:11–12 — God speaks in a gentle whisper
• 1 Kings 19:15–16 — God gives Elijah renewed direction and purpose
• 1 Kings 19:18 — God reminds Elijah he is not alone
• Isaiah 43:19 — God makes a way in the wilderness
• Isaiah 61:3 — garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness
• Psalm 77 — remembering God’s works in seasons of distress

Want Prayer? Have Questions?

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📧 contact.godlyhabits@gmail.com

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Legal Disclaimer:  

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care. Always consult your doctor or therapist for personalized support.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If you feel like everything has just felt heavy lately, like you're getting through your days, but it takes everything in you to function. Maybe you feel far from God, or you haven't reached for your Bible in a while. Maybe you've even wondered, is God really there? Does he even care? And underneath all of that, is there this quiet question of does any of this even matter? When life feels heavy, we don't just need to push forward. We need something or someone to hold on to. And by the end of this episode, I hope all of our listeners can walk away with something steady to hold on to. Something simple and true, so that even in a dark season, you can begin to experience a little more peace and hope.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Welcome to the Godly Habits Podcast with Dr. Mason Howe.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

And Brooklyn Howe, where we help you build God-honoring habits.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

So that you can bridge the gap between who you are now and who you want to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Welcome to the Godly Habits Podcast. This is episode 32, and I'm Dr. Mason Howan. I'm here with my wife, Brooklyn. We're just so thankful that you're here to join us today on our podcast. And today we're talking about a habit that will give you hope in difficult seasons.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yes, and if you're somebody who's in a difficult season right now, what may be so hard about it for some of you is that you've already prayed about it probably a million times. You have so much faith in God, you've brought this to God more than once, and you're still not seeing change. And that can feel really discouraging. And sometimes we can wonder, is God really hearing me right now? And over time it can start to turn inward. And some of us can even begin to wonder if there's something wrong with us or something wrong with our faith. Or we can start to question God, wondering why he hasn't stepped in. And maybe you've even had well-meaning people tell you, just pray harder, just have more faith. Or maybe they've given you advice that instead of helping just made you feel even more misunderstood and more alone. If that's you, know that you really aren't alone. And I've had seasons just like that too. But sometimes the first way God meets us isn't by changing everything right away, but by staying with us in a difficult season. Because even when everything feels heavy and maybe you can't feel him, Jesus is still with us. And so that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. So if that sounds good to you, then unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

So, Brooklyn, I know that since we're talking about difficult seasons, I think the best place for us to start is a story in the Bible, right? Like there are plenty of biblical stories that talk about people going through difficult times and difficult seasons and feeling difficult emotions. So, do you mind starting there?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

And I want to say this gently before we jump in. This part of scripture, it does touch on a really low moment and a moment where a Bible character feels very overwhelmed and just done with life. So if you are in a really tender place right now, um, I just want to give you full permission. Listen at your own pace, pause it if you need to. So this is a story from 1 Kings 19. We see Elijah, and this is a book of prophets, and this is right after Elijah had this incredible moment um on Mount Carmel where God showed up in a very, very powerful way, and in this moment, like there was so much, I guess it was like one of those spiritual mountaintop moments. And then right after that, Elijah just crashes. And so I'm gonna take you to that moment. So for so a little bit of biblical context, this takes place during the time of divided kingdom, and it's under King Ahab when Israel had largely turned to Baal worship under Jezebel's influence. So they're worshiping false gods, pagan gods, and Elijah's role as a prophet was to call the nation back to the Lord. So he warned them of things, and he was really bringing their hearts or trying to bring their hearts back to the Lord. And right before this moment that we're gonna be going over, Elijah stands on Mount Carmel and God answers. So in 1 Kings 18, 38, it says, Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. And so from there they seized the prophets of Baal and they slaughtered them there. Overall, the ending, you know, it ends in this big spiritual supernatural moment where God really reveals his power. And so you you'd think after that, like, oh, this is a really like amazing moment. They're gonna turn back to the Lord. And what we find out is that shortly after that, it talks about how Jezebel basically says she's going to kill Elijah. So Elijah is running away, and you can probably guess just by his human experience, there's probably so much going on internally. Okay, so now we're kind of caught up to 1 Kings 19. So, you know, in that moment, Elijah he did all the things God called him to do, and he probably expected the nation to turn back, but instead nothing changed, and now there's a threat against his life. And he even, it says he even leaves his servant behind, and he goes into complete isolation. So he walks a full day into the wilderness, and we this is where we find him. He sits down under a broom tree. Now, a broom tree is like a small desert shrub that offers very little shade, and it's there to symbolize the type of um just suffering and vulnerability that Elijah's going through in that moment. So if we can picture it, it's in the heat of the day, in the middle of the wilderness, dry air, complete silent, just enough shade to sit under this little tree. He's not feeling restored, he's not comforted, he's collapsed. And this is when he prays to the Lord. He says in 1 Kings 19:4, enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I'm no better than my father's. And he lay down and fell asleep under the tree. So he was so fed up with life, he was ready to go. And he's interpreting his moment as a complete failure. It reflects the amount of exhaustion, disappointment, and probably all those thoughts just floating around in his mind.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

And I think with um Elijah being really fed up with life, I think that that that is a pretty good semblance for depression when he says, you know, Lord take me, I'm, you know, basically I'm better off not being here. Like I have no purpose, I have no point. You know, he's he's feeling really defeated at this point because while he had this big what he thought was going to be a big spiritual victory after the Lord brought fire down, the people still turned away from God, even despite the miracle. So he's like, what more can be done? Like, there's nothing else that can be done. I'm alone, you know, and with people with depression, just clinically, one of the biggest uh things that they feel most of the time, or people that are going through a depressed season feel is uh a sense of loneliness or sense of isolation. He's kind of really in a vault, like you said, in this vulnerable place and just feeling complete exhaustion over his life. And feels like that everything he's done has just been a failure.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Yeah, it's like this holistic depression and exhaustion. It's like physical, emotional, relational. He's isolated. And he you can tell, I think th uh that he may even feel a type of purposelessness, um, which really echoes a lot of what uh you know a lot of us still go through every day who are struggling with depression, is this question to ourselves, like, why am I still here? But what we see from this story is that Elijah's condition is absolutely not a sign of failed faith. Yes, he's exhausted, isolated, overwhelmed, but he still stops to pray. He's still bringing his human suffering to the Lord. So his struggle and his faith are absolutely existing at the same time. And scripture is so honest about this. This is actually something that occurs in so many different stories. We have Moses, Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, Paul even said he despised of he despaired of life. So we see that in the old and the new testament.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Sometimes I think that you know, it definitely means it it definitely doesn't mean we're defective, and sometimes I feel like that it kind of becomes a natural consequence of us having to come to the end of ourselves sometimes um in life. So that way God can teach us something new, something different. Yeah. Um even though it's a really painful experience, but sometimes the most painful experiences are the ways that grow you and other things that grow you.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Um and that's a really good point because you know, when we look through the scriptures and we look to people who go out into the wilderness, whether it was Jesus, Moses, um, Jonah, or um, in this case Elijah, they all are going out into this isolation into the wilderness. These places of barrenness and desert, um you know, yes, physically, but then also spiritually are places of divine encounter with the Lord. So it's like this, this like divine meeting with God the Father. And so I guess the question, the big, big question here is what does God do with Elijah's human experience right now in this space of darkness? So how does God respond? Mason, so when we're feeling like Elijah did in 1 Kings 19, it can be really easy for us to feel like we need to just put on a happy face or just push through it, or like say when we go to church, we have to put on that smile and act like everything's you know super great, everything's going well. But what do you see in scripture that actually kind of challenges that idea?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Well, there's a verse that I hear often quoted, um, and it's Isaiah 61, verse 3, and it's a verse that says that for a spirit spirit of heaviness put on a garment of praise. And so this is a verse, you know, spirit of heaviness is kind of really a term that was used for kind of like a depressed spirit, a heavy spirit, um, in the Bible. And so we see that often, and we see that it's about you know putting on a garment of praise to combat that. And I would say that that garment of praise does not necessarily mean that it's gonna look like us just showing up with a smile on our face. Praise to the Lord can be very raw, right? It can be very uh personal, and it means that we're choosing God despite the circumstances that we're facing. And so, um yeah, like how it says put on, like it's like this active uh exactly, it's an active thing, and it's not something that I would say means your emotions are necessarily always going to follow um at the time. So the thing is, is we can praise the Lord even if we don't feel it, right? Yeah. Like that praise, that action to praise the Lord is a choice. It's a choice that we can that we do, and sometimes we can't control, I mean, we can't control our feelings, but we can control what we choose. And so in that case, we're putting on the garment, we're choosing to put on the garment, and then we're praising the Lord um for the things that He has done for us in our lives. So I think that the idea is is trying to do a shift in perspective, right? We're right now we're in the midst of a lot of pain and suffering and heaviness, but actually thinking back to the things that God has done for you in your life, for the blessings that He has given you, for the health that maybe He had given you.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So, like I actually see this exact turnaround happening in Psalm 77. This is David, and he kind of starts out by saying he's crying out to the Lord, he's rising his voice to the Lord and saying that he is in the day of trouble. His in the night, even he's outstretching his hands to the Lord, and his soul is refusing to be comforted. So, kind of like in the verse you just quoted, what was it?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

For a spirit of heaviness, put on a garment of praise.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Yeah, so for a spirit of heaviness is really describing like this in Psalm 77. I could really describe David's experience as a spirit of heaviness, because he says, My soul refuses to be comforted. I'm restless when I think about God. I'm even sighing, and my spirit feels weak. And then there and then he keeps going and he says, I'm so troubled I can't speak. And my my spirit is wondering, Will the Lord reject me forever? So he's even wondering, where is God in this moment? Like, has he turned his back on me? Has his favor ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end? And then there's a pause. And then I love this. It says, Then I said, It is my grief that the right hand of the most high has changed. So just like what you said, in a spirit of heaviness, put on the garment of praise. So he goes on to literally put on the garment of praise. He says, I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. I will certainly remember your your wonders of old. I will meditate on all of your work, your deeds with thanksgiving. Your way, God, is holy. What God is great like our God. You are the God who works wonders. You've made known your strength among the peoples, and by your power you've redeemed your people. He goes on and on and on, and he keeps going, and he really starts talking about how God lights up the world and he and the earth trembles and shakes at his power and sovereignty. And so he's talking about like God, like who God truly is, his character trait traits, his works, how he has historically entered into his people, like as a society, as a you know, a collection of people entered into moments for them. And he continues to to enter into this moment with David in his really dark place. And it's like such a great illustration of what you just described.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

So I love I think what's so important about that is that neither of those verses do they say to hide that spirit of heaviness and darkness, to avoid bringing it to the Lord, to put on a happy face when you're coming to God, even to pray. Like it's very real, raw emotions, desires, disappointments, fears. As raw as it gets, the vulnerability and the authenticity is there, and he's bringing it directly to God. And so we're gonna find out in First Kings how God responds to this. And that's that really speaks volumes into how he shows up for us in our dark places too.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

And if this episode is resonating with you, I just want to invite you to pause for a second and lean in because next week we're talking about something really important, especially if you've been struggling with your mental health, feeling lonely, or you're just wanting wise Christian counsel, but you're not really sure where to turn. We're going to talk about all things counseling and therapy, including how to advocate for yourself to find the right support and someone who actually aligns with your faith and your needs. So go ahead and pause this episode real quick, go to the podcast and hit follow so you don't miss that conversation. I would just say that number one thing that I feel like when it comes to that garment of praise is practicing gratitude in the midst of it, which is the last thing. The last thing that you want to do, right? That's like the last thing. Any like when you're going through a difficult time, like the last thing I've been there, the last thing I want to do is actually praise, right? Or be grateful. You know, most of the time I'm so wrapped up in my own pain and the own my own hurt that that's all I can see. Uh, you know, got a a uh I'm just seeing one foot in front of my face. You know, like you're in fog or something like that, and you can only see one foot in front of you. But really, if we can just take a moment to take one step back, even just for a little bit, um, I do think that this will help us in those times. And really, if we can get into a habit of building gratitude and praise into our daily life, our daily walk with Jesus, to where we just spend a few minutes just thinking God for as many things as you can think of, you know. Like you could actually do that as a practice. Just turn on your, you know, turn on your timer, and then just spend five minutes just thinking of everything that you could think of, just any little thing, whether it's your ability to breathe right now at this moment, maybe you are not currently in any pain, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

I think at times when we're you know in a depressed state, it can feel like gratitude is not feasible. And some days, you know, all we could really muster up was like, oh, I'm really grateful for my warm cup of tea, or I'm really grateful that the sun is shining today. And so if that's where you're at and you just have these small creature comforts or little things that you see out in nature, and then that's that's where your gratitude gratitude lies that day, that's okay. Because I think the ability of the human heart to really cry out without reserve to God and to praise him for even the smallest thing, that creates such an opportunity for healing because we have such a caring God.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So, kind of tell us a little bit about how God basically counsels Elijah in this moment of darkness.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so when you keep reading on to 1 Kings 19, what really stands out is God's response. So he doesn't rebuke him, he doesn't shame him, he does not tell him to push through, but he does meet him there in that space. So he starts with. With meeting his physical needs before anything else. And God really meets him in a holistic way. So we're gonna go through every little step. The first thing is physical.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

So right after Elijah said, I have enough, I've had enough, Lord. And he said, Take my life, I'm no better than my ancestors. He then laid down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. And he looked around, and there by his head was some baked some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, then lie down again. Then the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Okay, so God first sends his angel to meet Elijah's physical needs. So he needed rest and he needed sustenance. And he did it twice. He did acknowledge the weight, saying the journey's too much for you. He doesn't minimize it. He meets him where he is, shows us clearly that God cares for our body, not just our heart, our emotions, our spirituality, but he cares for our physical body too. And when you're depressed or in a discouraged state, physical depletion is not separate from our spiritual life. And I love how God starts there with hungry and tired. Okay, so then the second part is God steps into his mental care.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And after Elijah got to the mountain, in verse 11, it says, The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in an earthquake. And after the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Okay. So I just want to like pause on that for a second, is because in those moments of discouragement, I truly believe the Lord comes to us just as it was described here, in a whisper. He's not in the fire, not in the earthquake, not in that big powerful wind, but in a whisper, a gentle blowing. He can come to us with gentleness, kindness, softness, tenderness to those spaces of hurt and discouragement.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

It says, Then a voice said to him, and you gotta remember this is the voice that's in a whisper, right? What are you doing here, Elijah? And he replied, I have been very zealous for the Lord Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. And I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Okay, so he's thinking, Everybody's been killed, I'm completely alone as a prophet, and now they're coming for me. And so he's probably super afraid, he's probably super discouraged and feeling like everything's just been in vain and a lost cause. And so God is gonna enter into this space to into this thought process to speak directly to his mental health.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Then the Lord said to him, Go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus when you get there. Anoint Elisha, son of Shafhat, succeed you as prophet. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

It looks like Elijah here, he's kind of made it up in his mind that I'm the only one left. This is a dire circumstance. And God comes in and he clears up that misconception or misperception and says, No, I'm leaving 7,000 prophets in Israel. So you're absolutely not alone.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Yeah, I would almost say, you know, a good way of putting in, I think we've talked about this briefly um in other episodes, but one term for it is cognitive distortions, where Elijah has this cognitive distortion of really over-generalization, right? He's over-generalized, like I'm it. This is it, over catastrophized, like nobody is here. The the like to everybody is turned away from you, Lord, like I'm it, man. So, like, what is there to do? And God is coming up and speaking truth and clearing up Elijah's what I would call his cognitive distortions. I mean, the real to Elijah, it's it's his reality that I'm it, but God's bigger perspective and true reality is saying, Elijah, hey, I got 7,000 more. Yes, like you're not alone. Like, we got 7,000 that have never bowed to Baal, who have never kissed, have never bowed before him, who have never prayed to him, who have never worshipped Baal. Wow. So we are, you know, you like like you're one of many.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Yes, that's so good because I think, you know, in the many years that I struggled with depression, a lot of that same lie was coming towards me. I think a lot of people who've struggled with it too can identify with that thought of I'm alone. People don't understand me, or they are not getting me, or um, I really don't have anybody. There's no safe place. And God goes in and clears that up for Elijah, and he's cleared it up for me. It is a true misconception, but it feels so real in the moment. And God has definitely just come into those places and given me hope where there was no hope. Absolutely a fresh perspective on a really long-standing belief of isolation. And I know he can do that and will do that for many others. Okay, so now he goes in to spiritual care. I love it. So he did physical, then he went into the mental, now he's going into spiritual. This part gets me so hyped up. Basically, the pair to paraphrase this next part, he just goes out and he finds his successor, Elisha, and so he's moving on to his next mission. So God helped him physically by giving him rest and food. He helped him mentally by clearing up some of those things that he was believing that was a lie. And I think, you know, emotionally, him coming in a whisper and coming in that just gentle tenderness, I think really shows Elijah that he's in this safe place with the Lord. I think emotionally he comes to him there too. And then spiritually, when he puts him back up on his feet spiritually, so to speak, he gives him direction and he tells him who his successors are gonna be. And he restores his purpose and his his heavenly assignment. So this is so important. God didn't just comfort Elijah in that space so that he would only feel better. I mean, that was a big part of it, but he truly strengthened him so he could continue in God's ultimate plan. His larger purposes were still moving forward through Elijah. Even when Elijah thought everything had failed, God was still working. So, what can we take from this, from Elijah's prayer? We learn that honest prayer is still faith. We learn from God's response that God cares for the whole person. And when we look at Elijah, I don't see someone who's failed. I see someone who reached the end of his human capacity. I see a God who knew exactly how to meet him there. And when we look at this, we have to stop interpreting discouragement as proof that something's wrong with us spiritually, that we are deficient or defective. The wilderness is not a sign that God has left us. It's often that place where dependence on him is rebuilt. This new and thriving connection is rebuilt. So throughout scripture, the wilderness is where human strength runs out, and God does something so good with that. So for you, if you're feeling discouraged, heavy, struggling with depression, stuck, come honestly. Let God meet you in that space.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Because God says in Isaiah 43, 19, See, I am doing a new thing, and now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams and the wasteland.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

So he's making a way in the wilderness, not outside of it, in the wilderness. Which means this season, if it feels really dark and empty, it's not wasted. God will meet his people there. Just like he met me in my darkness, just like he met Elijah. Because even here, God has not stepped away from you. He's still at work in you, and he's still strengthening you, holding you, walking with you, even if you can't feel it.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

And I would encourage you just briefly to to just take a moment and be thankful for the gifts, the spiritual gifts that God has put in you and gifted with gifted you with. Um just you know, know that we're all built with different spiritual gifts, or built with for different things and different purposes, and God made us each individually and loves us e all individually. And loves our spiritual gifts and the things that He has blessed us with. Because most of the time these strengths that were developed in you throughout your life have come through the challenges, through your weaknesses, and they're the ways that God has built you and and and made you stronger in your weakness.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

And made you unique and given you this very unique calling that only you can fulfill with the strength he's built in you. I wanna leave with a coaching question that I believe the Holy Spirit has impressed upon my heart, which is like when you're in your prayer time, if you take some some time to pray and thank the Lord for your strengths and um ask him to illuminate, you know, you know, how you can be using those to draw upon um to get through this season or to serve others, whatever it be, um, as you're doing that, ask yourself this which of those places that God showed up for Elijah? Which of those places, physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, do you sense God breathing life into in this season of your life? Where do you see him at work? Let God meet you there this week.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

So thank you for listening to the Godly Habits podcast, and we'll see you here in a couple weeks.