The Elijah Syndrome

Elijah saw God do some amazing miracles (see 1 Kings 17-19). God brought a drought when Elijah announced it and ended the drought when Elijah prayed. God brought fire down from heaven to consume Elijah's sacrifice. And Elijah appears to have believed that when the Israelites saw these things, they would repent and follow God. Instead, Elijah ended up on the run, with Jezebel pursuing him. But perhaps more daunting than the physical danger was Elijah's own depression and discouragement. He complained that he had been faithful to God and had seen little in terms of positive results. God then orchestrated a series of physical events that made a point. He sent a series of obviously impressive acts of power: a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire. But He was not in these impressive acts of power. Then there was a quiet whispering sound, and God was in the quiet whispering sound. Sometime it is easy to fall into the idea that God only works in the impressive, the blatant, and the powerful. And He does use that. But often He is at work behind the scenes, working in a quiet whisper, where we do not obviously see Him. So we should not be discouraged if we do not always see the results we want, but should trust He is at work (Psalms 127:1,2; Ephesians 1:11; Proverbs 3:5,6).