Worship

Please take time to consider the words of this wonderful hymn as you offer yourself in worship to God.

O soul, are you weary & troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Saviour
And life more abundant & free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth
Will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory & grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed & we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion,
For more than conquerors we are!
Turn your eyes……..

His word shall not fail you
He promised;
Believe Him & all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell.
Turn your eyes……. 

Sermon on the mat: Seasons of the Soul.

1 Kings 19:9-21
‘There he went into a cave & spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: What are you doing here Elijah?’ (v9).

Ecclesiastes 3
‘To every thing there is a season & a time to every purpose under heaven.’ (v1)

Just as there are seasons in nature, so too there are seasons in life. Seasons, for instance such as, ‘the dark night’ of the soul. A season which the prophet Elijah understood only too well. A season which, perhaps unsurprisingly, descended upon him the very moment that he’d experienced the greatest spiritual victory of his somewhat illustrious career, to date. I.e. The humiliation & routing of the false prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel! ‘1 Kings 18:16-39).

It was a season, take note, in which God spoke to him, not through the persuasive forcefulness of an earthquake, a wind or a fire, as He could so easily have done & in a more appropriate context, likely as not, probably would have done but rather through the distinct & gentle murmurings of a ‘still small voice.’ A manner entirely befitting Elijah’s condition & situation. I.e. A child of God immersed in the depths & ravages of depression. v 12.

Nb. That God deals tenderly with His children, when they find themselves caught up in such circumstances, is born out through the teachings of the prophet Isaiah where in chapter 42 & verse 3 he gives assurance of the fact that – ‘He (God) won’t brush aside the bruised & the hurt & he won’t disregard the small & insignificant but He’ll steadily & firmly set things right.’ MSG.

Or as one Christian writer succinctly puts it – ‘You are the God who is gentle with my weakness!’

What lay at the heart of Elijah’s depression, this spirit of heaviness ((Isaiah 61:3) that found him so rapidly propelled into the season of, ‘the dark night of the soul?’ Firstly the misplaced notion that Queen Jezebel would succeed in her threats to destroy him. Secondly the erroneous view that he was the only one of the prophets of the Lord still alive. Thirdly & lastly, the mistaken belief that, despite Elijah’s years of loyal & faithful service to Him, God had completely abandoned him. Something of course God would never do. Not once we are His own. Not once He has placed His Holy Spirit within us, as a sure & certain mark of our inheritance in Him. As Deuteronomy 31:6 states – ‘He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down. He won’t leave you!’ MSG.

How then did God address his servant’s state of heart & mind? A state of heart & mind, one might reasonably argue, that was largely of Elijah’s own making. Nb. Had he kept his focus on the Master, his perspective might have been so different?! His assessment of the true facts, so much clearer. How? By revealing to him that it was He, all along, who was in the circumstances of Elijah’s difficulties, leading him, by means of those difficulties, into a deeper state of fellowship & communion with Him.

A deeper state of fellowship & communion with Him in which Elijah would at last come to realise that it is in the darkest places of all that the light of God’s eternal hope most brightly shines!

Prayer of blessing
The embrace of the Father
Be the comfort you desire.
The name of the Son
Be the One upon whom you rely.
The presence of the Spirit
Be with you every hour.
The Three in One
Be the focus of all you are.
In Jesus’ name – Amen.

Please pray for –

• Kathryn & her family as they continue to come to terms with the loss of Kathryn’s dad. That they will have a real sense of God’s nearness, and the knowledge of the Holy Spirit’s upholding & uplifting presence.
• Those who work in the health services, especially those who are being deployed into new roles during this crisis.
• For those who will be missing cherished traditions & gatherings over this time, especially those who are lonely.