September 19, 2021 · 1 Kings 19:3–5

Prays of Elijah

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.

“Elijah asked God to take his life away after he had this amazing miracle of fire falling from heaven. You probably had moments in your life that were kind of like amazing times, when God came through. There was a healing. Maybe there was a movement. Maybe he gave you some type of new vision or mission. Maybe he did something in your family's life. Maybe he just rescued you from darkness. And then later on, darkness falls again. I just want to say it's okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. It's okay to not be okay. But we need to take it to God, because it can't be the end of the story. And that's — what — the second thing I want to point out. So the first prayer was — is — "I want to die" — for it. It's like, bring your laments to God. — I — actually bring, like, the highest-level stuff, the scary stuff, the stuff that you don't want to admit to anyone. When you have doubts — "Maybe, God — what am I supposed to do? What's going on?" — when those things are coming in your mind, bring it to God.”