When Victory Feels Like Defeat
By Dean Collins
How do you feel after a big victory? We get a bird’s eye view of many victory moments when watching big events on our streaming devices. We usually see big smiles, hugs, champagne bottles being spewed in every direction and then the various speeches which sometimes capture tears of joy.
But what about you? I don’t know that any of my readers have won a national championship recently, but maybe you had a big win at work, received a promotion, or got through a tough health crisis. Many times, after getting through a tough situation and getting the “win,” I can feel myself exhale and notice a lot of tension and stress suddenly leave my mind and body.
Sometimes our response to overcoming a battle is delayed because we have fought so hard for so long that it is hard to believe that our challenge is truly over. As we learn from the story of Elijah and his victory on Mount Carmel, there is another reaction. Elijah wasn’t singing and playing tambourines in celebration for what God had done that day. Elijah ran for his life in fear!
Once Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Instead of trusting God to protect him, Elijah slipped into a panic and feared Jezebel more than he trusted in God.
Fear will wear you out! When we carry around anxiety and fear, it impacts the body and the mind. We usually don’t fully realize the impact of the fear on our lives until someone helps us see it or the fatigue is so great that we just collapse. That is exactly what happened to Elijah. After a day’s journey into the woods, Elijah sat under a broom tree and asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” The enemy seeks to stir fear in order to keep us from trusting in the promises of God. But God understands, and he never stops helping us, even when we might fail to see his hand at work in our lives.
In the rest of chapter 19, we read how God used sleep, food, a ministering angel, and truth to minister to Elijah and to help him understand Elijah’s confusion and clarify God’s power in shaping the grand story he was writing in and through Elijah’s experiences. We often fail to see God’s hand in our disappointments and in our victories. Yet, God is always present in ways that shape us. God is always working for the greater good for us and for the world around us.
Father, may we learn the story of Elijah and find hope and rest when we are weary. Help us see that it is always you who are at work, even when we cannot see it, and sadly even in those times when we forget that it is never us that secures the victory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
1 Kings 19:1-18 ESV
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