Egging You On! Beating Life's Difficulties & Cracking on With Godਨਮੂਨਾ

Elijah - The Scrambled Egg

In the scripture reading for today our scrambled egg, Elijah, is physically, emotionally, and mentally egg'xhausted. 1 Kings 19 picks up after Elijah has seen God work through him and do an incredible miracle. Elijah proved that Baal was a false god and that his God was the true and Almighty one. During a standoff involving Elijah vs 450 prophets of Baal, Elijah was bold, courageous, and assured of God's authority, despite the dire natural odds. God came through in a phenomenal display of his power. Shortly after this incredible victory though, Elijah experiences depression. He runs and hides, terrified of Jezebel who wants him dead. He swings drastically from victor to victim. Hence him being a scrambled egg - a mixed bag of emotions, from one egg'xtreme to another. I'm sure many of us can relate to these varied and wild emotions.

I love how God deals with Elijah in his scrambled state. His divine prescription is 'naps and snacks' (1 Kings 19:5-8). He needed this time to rest and re'coup'erate before God sent him out on his next mission.

I can relate to Elijah's predicament (to a much lesser degree - I can't say I've ever taken on 450 false prophets!). A few years ago, I believe God did a significant miracle in a challenging situation I was in. I wrote a book about it and this has been well received and has encouraged people. The last few years have been very different - I've been pretty dry spiritually and a bit lost in life - bordering on depression at times if I'm honest. It shows that even when we see God's hand clearly at work and he uses us to help others, we can subsequently experience a state of fear and or depression. We can feel like our lives and our heads are a bit scrambled.

If you are in a scrambled state - feeling tired, weary, depressed, despairing, fearful - take the necessary time to rest, recover, and be restored by your heavenly father. There's more in store for you, as there was for Elijah, but ensure you take the right steps to get yourself together. Don't feel down on yourself for feeling scrambled - even biblical characters like Elijah who we look to as heroes of faith, faced some very scrambled seasons.

Reflection

If you are feeling scrambled, what can you do to re'coup'erate properly, to be able to crack on effectively again?