BAGGAGE, Part 7 – "How to Deal With How I Feel" – 1 Kings 19 – October 24, 2021

Depression is REAL and one of Satan’s greatest tactics. Despite the hopelessness, one may feel when in the pit of despair, there is HOPE. Reach out for help, speak truth into your soul, and seek professional medical help when needed.

Today's text is 1 Kings 19.
Elijah has just experienced great victory as the God of Israel displayed His great power over the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. However, just a short time later Elijah is running for his life, afraid, exhausted, down in the dumps, and ready to just die.

So, how do we deal with these feelings when they come? There are a few daily choices we can make...

1. Focus on Facts, Not Feelings
Feelings are not facts; they can be highly unreliable and if allowed to go unchecked they can distort actual facts.
• The Bible doesn’t tell us to get in touch with our feelings but to get in touch with the truth, because it’s the truth that sets us free (John 8:32).

There are four factors to notice in Elijah's experience with depression:
• Fear (1 Kings 19:3). Elijah, frightened by the threats of Jezebel, runs for his life. Fear is almost always a factor in depression. Many times, like Elijah, we become afraid of failure, of loneliness, of not getting a job completed, of not measuring up to expectations, of not having our marriage go the way we’d like.
• Failure (1 Kings 19:4). Elijah held a negative opinion about himself. He felt he was no more successful in checking the nation’s apostasy than the prophets who had gone before him. It’s easy to think: “I’m no good. I’m incompetent. God made a mistake when He made me.”
• Fatigue (1 Kings 19:5). Elijah was emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Mountain tops can leave us that way. Depression is always related to or reflected in our physical condition.
• Futility (1 Kings 19:10). Elijah said, “I am the only one left and now they are out to get me.” He feels alone, hopeless and has negative expectations about the future. Elijah is paranoid. He thinks everybody is out to get him.

When you don't know, go back to what you do know. Transform confusion into clarity.

2. Find Freedom in God's Presence
• Rest (vs. 5-7)
• Reveal (vs. 8-10)
• Remember (God’s Faithfulness in your past)

3. Feed Your Mind with God's Truth
Why do we get ourselves into such emotional messes? Sometimes because of what happens to us, bad circumstances occur in our lives. But more often it's because of faulty thinking. If you want to get rid of negative emotions, you have to change the way you think. The Bible says that you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).

Here are some Scriptures you can pray back to God as you seek to apply God's truth to faulty thinking:

• Philippians 4:8
• Deuteronomy 31:8
• Psalm 34:17
• Psalm 40:1-3
• Psalm 3:3
• Psalm 32:10
• Psalm 42:11
• 1 Peter 5:6-7
• John 16:33
• Romans 8:38-39
• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
• 1 Peter 4:12-13
• Psalm 37:23-24
• Isaiah 41:10

Your depression is a part of your story and God can use it for His glory.

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