So You Don't Think You Can Go Any Further?
By Everett Wayne Baum
A man is lying under a bush in the desert.
He has run a whole day into the wilderness, as far as his legs would carry him. He left his servant behind. He's alone, worn out, and done.
And he prays. But it isn't a prayer of faith. It's a prayer to quit:
"It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life" (1 Kings 19:4).
Then he falls asleep under the juniper tree.
You might think this is a man who never knew God. A man who never saw a miracle. A man who never had any faith at all.
You'd be wrong.
This is Elijah, one of the greatest prophets who ever lived. And only days before, he had seen one of the mightiest miracles in the whole Bible.
So how did a man like that end up here?
The Man Who Shut the Sky
Years earlier, Elijah walked into the court of wicked King Ahab and said something no ordinary man would dare to say:
"As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (1 Kings 17:1).
And it didn't rain.
Not for a week. Not for a month. The book of James tells us: "He prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months" (James 5:17).
Three and a half years. One man's prayer shut the sky.
Then came the day on Mount Carmel. Elijah stood alone against 450 prophets of Baal. They cried out to their god all day long, and nothing happened. Then Elijah prayed one prayer, and "the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench" (1 Kings 18:38).
The people fell on their faces and shouted, "The LORD, he is the God."
Then Elijah climbed to the top of the mountain, bowed down, and prayed for rain. He sent his servant to look toward the sea.
Nothing.
He prayed again. Nothing.
Seven times he sent the servant to look. And the seventh time, the servant came back and said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (1 Kings 18:44).
A little cloud. No bigger than a man's hand.
Hold on to that. We'll come back to it.
Within the hour, "the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain" (1 Kings 18:45).
If ever there was a man full of faith, it was Elijah.
So what happened?
One Message
It didn't take an army to bring Elijah down. It didn't take a famine or a plague.
It took one message.
Queen Jezebel sent word that by this time tomorrow, Elijah would be dead.
And the man who stood alone against 450 false prophets "arose, and went for his life" (1 Kings 19:3).
He ran. He ran all the way to the desert, sat down under that juniper tree, and asked God to let him die.
Later, hiding in a cave, he poured out his complaint to God: "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away" (1 Kings 19:10).
I'm the only one left.
Think about that. The first time, Elijah prayed and shut the heavens. The second time, he sat in a cave and complained.
Same man. Same God.
What changed?
God Didn't Move
Here's the answer, and it's the heart of everything I want to tell you.
God hadn't changed at all.
The God who held back the rain was the same God when Jezebel sent her threat. The God who sent the fire was the same God under the juniper tree.
"For I am the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Elijah's circumstances changed. Elijah's feelings changed. Elijah's mindset changed.
God didn't move. Elijah did.
And that's the truth about every one of us. We don't always live at the same emotional level. Some days we feel strong in the Lord, and we could take on the world. Other days we can hardly get out of bed. Our faith seems to go up and down like the weather.
But that up-and-down faith is emotional faith. And when emotional faith hits bottom, it starts to say things like "I can't go on," "It's no use," and "I'm the only one left."
That isn't faith talking anymore. It's complaining. It's faith turned upside down: believing the worst instead of believing God.
What If You Never Felt Him at All?
Let me ask you a hard question.
What if you could never feel God again? Not once. No warm feelings in church. No goosebumps in prayer. Nothing.
Could you keep going?
Could you go on simply because His Word says it's so?
That's the faith God is after. "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). Not by sight, and not by feelings either.
Feelings are real, and they're a gift. But they come and go. The Word of God does not. When your feelings tell you one thing and God's Word tells you another, the Word wins every time.
And here's good news: the Bible says God has dealt "to every man the measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). You haven't run out. It's not that you can't go on. It's that your eyes have shifted from God to your circumstances.
Maybe This Is You
Maybe you made a mistake, a big one, and you're drowning in what it caused. And you wonder if God could ever forgive you after this.
Maybe you're watching someone you love lie sick, and you've prayed and prayed, and you see no progress. None at all.
Maybe you're the one who's sick.
Maybe you're just tired. Tired of carrying it. Tired of trying.
Whatever your juniper tree is, hear me: God is the same today as He was on the best day of your life. He didn't leave. He didn't change His mind about you. He's right where He has always been.
And He knows exactly where to find you. Just ask Elijah.
What God Did Under the Juniper Tree
Now watch what God did next. This is my favorite part of the story.
God didn't scold Elijah. He didn't lecture him or tell him to get his faith up.
He let him sleep.
Then an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." And there was bread baking on hot coals and a jar of water by his head. Elijah ate, drank and lay back down.
Then the angel came a second time: "Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee" (1 Kings 19:7).
The journey is too great for thee. God knew Elijah couldn't go any further on his own strength, so He gave him His.
If you've ever been where Elijah was, so low you told God you'd rather not live, look at what God did. He didn't leave him under that tree. He sent someone to him, with bread in one hand and a touch on the shoulder.
God still sends help the same way, through people. If you're in that dark place today, don't sit under the tree alone. Tell someone: a pastor, a friend, a family member, a doctor. Or call or text 988, any time, day or night, or your local emergency number. Letting someone help you isn't weakness. It may be the very bread God is sending.
And Elijah "went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights" (1 Kings 19:8).
Then, on the mountain, God passed by. There was a great wind, but God wasn't in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake. There was a fire, but God wasn't in the fire.
And after the fire, "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12).
Sometimes God doesn't answer with fire from heaven. Sometimes He answers in a whisper.
And then God corrected Elijah's one great mistake. "I, even I only, am left," Elijah had said.
God answered: "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19:18).
Seven thousand. Elijah thought he was all alone, and he never had been.
Neither are you.
You Are Not Alone Right Now
Elijah couldn't see the seven thousand. And you can't see what God has around you either.
But it's there. "The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7).
At this very moment, God's angels are standing by. The Bible calls them "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14).
And listen to what moves them. The angels "do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word" (Psalm 103:20).
They listen for His Word.
So when you open your mouth and declare what God has said, you are speaking the very thing heaven's servants are listening for.
Watch Your Words
That works the other way too.
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21).
"I can't." "It's hopeless." "I'm the only one left." Those words never lifted anybody up. They only take you further down. Elijah's complaint didn't get him out of the cave. God's word did.
So stop speaking the problem. Start speaking the Word.
Speak it over your situation. Speak it over yourself. Speak it over your family.
"Let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel 3:10).
Say "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).
Say "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5), because He said it first.
Remember the Little Cloud
Now, remember that little cloud?
Elijah prayed seven times before he saw anything at all. And when he finally did, it was a cloud no bigger than a man's hand. Small enough to laugh at.
But Elijah didn't laugh. He got ready. Because he knew what that little cloud meant.
Big blessings sometimes start out small.
"For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10).
Maybe the healing starts with one good day. Maybe the answer starts with one phone call, one open door, one small change. Don't despise it. That little cloud may be the beginning of your great rain.
Pray in the Name of Jesus
And when you pray, pray in the name of Jesus.
Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
When you come to the Father in the name of His Son, the Father is glorified. He isn't reluctant. He isn't holding back. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
It's His good pleasure. He wants to answer.
And Jesus said, "ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).
Get Up
Wherever you are tonight, get up.
Falling down isn't the end of the story. "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again" (Proverbs 24:16).
The real defeat isn't being down. It's staying down.
So get up, with a renewed belief that God is on your side. "When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me" (Micah 7:8).
And one day, you'll look back on this very moment with a testimony. You'll say what David said:
"I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock" (Psalm 40:1–2).
I was down. But God picked me up. And He did it for me.
Take the first step, and God will take two. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8).
The journey may be too great for you.
It is not too great for Him.
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6).
You can make it. Not with your strength, but with the strength of God.