At times we pronounce ourselves "tired" because we can't think of exactly how to sort and categorize the mosaic of thoughts that pull down like emotional gravity. While muscles may ache and joints argue against the mental command to bend, I say I'm tired because I don't want to try again or perhaps try for the first time; a convenient cover that sounds much more acceptable than "I'm afraid," or "I'm unsure of myself." Speaking from experience, what is needed most in such moments is genuine spiritual renewal. While simple things such as eight hours of sleep and a balanced diet may indeed replenish depleted physical reserves and reduce this strain of exhaustion, what transforms resignation into resolve is a fresh encounter with God. If you are hiding in a cave of your own design, the time has come to listen for the voice of God, but it will likely not be heard in shouts from a pulpit or pious platitudes from so-called self-help literature. No, the voice will come as a whisper from a friend in need, or a child's lonely cry, or a homeless man's story of neglect and demise. Will I listen and in the hearing detect a divine whisper that draws me out of myself and once again into Himself? Spiritual renewal is not for the strong or confident, but for the exhausted individual who is wise enough to stop speaking and start listening.
(1 Kings 19:1-9, 11-15 NIV)
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 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 traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
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. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
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. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram."
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