The Message paraphrase says: ‘When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba… He left his young servant there and…went on into the desert another day’s journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all – just to die’ (vv. 3-4). When Jezebel threatened Elijah, he ran away. He felt like a failure because of one incident that intimidated him. It didn’t matter that he’d just proved in front of the whole of Israel that the God he followed was the true God (look at 1 Kings 18:16-40 for the whole story). Because he felt like he’d failed in one area, he assumed he was a failure in everything. That’s the problem we sometimes have when we focus only on the way we feel, without looking at all the facts too. When we make a mistake in one area, we can start to think we’re hopeless at everything. And that’s not true – first, because God’s gifted each of us with all kinds of skills and abilities, and second, just because we have a setback in one thing doesn’t mean we’re failures at life in general. It’s okay to make mistakes. God doesn’t see us as failures. So, what can we do if we get caught up in these thoughts? John 8:32 reminds us that the truth of God’s Word will set us free. By immersing ourselves in His Word (in other words: read your Bible), we’ll learn to understand His perspective, and bring our feelings into alignment with His.
What now?
Get your piece of paper from yesterday and write down one small step you could take towards that task you’re facing. It doesn’t matter how tiny it is, just as long as it’s a step towards the task, not away from it.