When You Are Downcast
(1 Kings 19:1-8)

When we are downcast, we lose our dream for life and start wandering about, or give life free rein and are given to self-indulgence. When we become more disappointed in life, we are in despair having destructive impulses which lead us to commit a suicide or put ourselves into trouble or accident.

1. Why you are downcast
1) When we are exhausted in both mind and body, our heart is lost due to the small external stress
? Elijah confronted with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mount Carmel
? God responded with fire and Elijah persecuted all the prophets of Baal
? A prayer for relieving drought which lasted for 3 years and 6 months
? Jezebel, the foreign wife of King Ahab, sent an ultimatum to Elijah
2) If we lose hope at a time when the power of resistance in heart is weakened due to long-lasting hardship and sufferings
* Dr. Moltmann of Germany lost his heart after hearing news that said Hamburg, his hometown, was bombarded and his family was dead while he was a POW (prisoner of war) in the U.K.
3) When our hopes and dreams are at an impasse
4) When we lose our self-respect

2. To restore your heart
1) Faith in and realization of good God
2) Meditating on the words, prayer, and comfort from the Holy Spirit - the grace of redemption on the cross
3) Fix your eyes on the cross of hopes and dreams ? expect good things to happen to you
4) Speak and think in positive terms, and give praises
5) Eat, drink, and take a rest

3. Find outer success and blessing in your faith
1) Control your thoughts ? The thoughts of success and blessings (From negativity to positivity)
2) Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert… - Utilize the principle of looking ahead
3) Believe in good things ? 99% of disbelief and 1% of faith (faith as small as a mustard seed)
4) Confession of the lips ? The stream of growth, success, and blessings

Disappointment in heart is the night in life. Though unbelievers find no way out of the cave of life in the night of disappointment, the night of disappointment is not a cave but a tunnel to believers because of Christ. As Christ is with us, we have no reason to fear evil. There is an exit in a tunnel. Patience will surely take us to the place of victory.