jah. She hated him for he was a threat to her evil ways. So, she proudly announced that she was going to have him destroyed. Here was a man who had stood before the vile prophets of Baal, with all their sharp instruments of torture, now in fright and caused to flight. As a matter of fact, he ran for a whole day until he was physi cally exhausted. Sitting down be neath a juniper tree, he considered his sad and desperate condition. All he could think of was, "Take away my life, Lord, for I am not better than my fathers" (I Kings 19:4). The point of the story, in relationship to the aspect of dis couragement, reminds us of the fact that physical weakness also means spiritual weakness. Please do not misunderstand. We are certainly not here to diagnose what your problems might be if you are discouraged today. It is a proven medical fact, however, that a great deal of discouragement and depression can be caused, for ex ample, by such things as an under active thyroid. Do not rule out the physical when trying to get to the bottom of your dispondency. You remember when the Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, as reported in the fourth chapter of Matthew ,and again in the fourth of Luke, the strong enticements of the devil came after our Saviour had gone without food for a period of 40 days and 40 nights. (I know what I am like when I have gone without even a single meal. It is easy to be physically down and ex hausted.) A lack of proper food causes some people to be difficult to get along with and often downright irritable. Satan knows when we are
the most susceptible to his attacks. The devil will easily tempt us in those moments of physical weak ness to be discouraged. When Eli jah began having thoughts of self- destruction the angel did not say very piously, "Now Elijah, get down on your knees and let us pray this thing through." It was not a spir itual problem at that point, but a physical. What the angel did say was, "Get up and eat!" There was action involved. And as we will see a little bit later in our studies con cerning depression, action is one of the best ways to overcome this problem so often confronting us. Now without question, discour agement is principally self-occupa tion. It is evaluating all things in the terms of one's own outlook on life. Overwork and physical ex haustion probably are the cause for more harsh words at home, more unkind comments to friends, more cutting remarks in church, school, the business world, and wherever you might be than anyone realizes. It is tremendously dangerous. So, one of the first causes of depres sion and discouragement, as we have seen in the life of Elijah, is where a physical problem is in volved. The second area is that which concerns people. That is right, oth ers can really get us down. I recall an executive of a large firm telling me in exasperation, "I could run my business just great if I did not have to run it with peop/e!" Do others ever get you down? I am sure you have thought at times that your life would be a whole lot less complicated if you did not have certain individuals to worry about. As a matter of fact, this was
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