Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Flush from a mighty victory over Baal’s prophets at the contest on Mount Carmel, Elijah frantically flees Jezebel’s wrath, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (1 Kings 19).

So, the only person surprised when self-pity seizes Elijah’s soul and takes him down into the pit is Elijah. In this sad state of the soul, all his marvelous intuitive, spiritual strengths are turned against him, and he actually begins to believe the devil’s lie that God has abandoned him. Self-pity opens us to enormous self-deception, doesn’t it?

But the moment of our importunity is often God’s opportunity. The still, small voice ministers mercy even while posing the question: “What are you doing here?” What is he doing indeed! What Elijah desperately needs and longs for but cannot name in his muted and defeated condition is the healing of the purpose of his life. This healing of purpose happens only when we are pushed up against the reason for our existence. Only when God begins to ask the core questions of our lives can we hope to recover any sense of the Divine calling upon our lives.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader