{"id":153919,"date":"2024-11-28T22:39:05","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T03:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/?p=153919"},"modified":"2024-11-28T19:39:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T00:39:30","slug":"dealing-with-anxiety-i-kings-191-18-mike-mazzalongo-bibletalk-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/153919","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Anxiety (I Kings 19:1-18) | Mike Mazzalongo | BibleTalk.tv"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dealing with Anxiety (I Kings 19:1-18) | Mike Mazzalongo | BibleTalk.tv\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TPcvKa_1WrA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\nAccording to the National Institute of\r\nMental Health, here in America, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, over-stress,\r\nburnout, those types of things, anxiety disorders, affect roughly 40 million\r\nAmericans between the ages of 18 and 54. These are not stats, like, from 20 years\r\nago. These are like April 2016 – 40 million Americans. We have more food than we can\r\neat and, most of us have homes to live in and jobs. We’re not at war with each other\r\nyet, hopefully. We live in relative security. We can go where we want, marry\r\nwho we want, eat what we want, live where we want, and work where we want. No\r\nimminent threat, and yet 40 million Americans struggle with anxiety\r\ndisorders. I suppose we could use words like stress, worry, as well as anxious when\u00a0we talk about the struggle that affects so many of us from time to time,\r\nand to a greater or lesser degree.\r\n\r\nIt’s not just people from 18 to 54. People\r\nyounger than that and people older than that struggle with these\r\ntypes of things, but that’s kind of the stat that I’m working with. In the world,\r\nthere are a lot of remedies offered to counter the problems of stress\r\nanxiety, and worry. There’s medication,\r\nvacations, therapy, support groups, all kinds of things, breathing exercises, yoga.\r\nAs Christians, however, we believe that even if these methods might be helpful,\r\nand many of them are, the most satisfying and permanent solution to the problems\r\nof worry and stress can only be found through faith, specifically through\r\nfaith in Christ. With this in mind, I’d like to review the story of Elijah and\r\nhow God helped him deal with his extreme case of stress\r\nworry, and eventual burnout.\r\n\r\nAnd that’s where we go for our lesson, First Kings\r\nchapter 19, let’s begin reading verses 1 to 3whichit says, “Now Ahab told Jezebel all that\r\nElijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then\r\nJezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even\r\nmore if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about\r\nthis time. And he,” meaning Elijah, “and he was afraid and arose and ran for his\r\nlife and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.”\r\nNow I don’t have time to read the entire story so I’m picking it up\r\nright here, and maybe just paraphrase, give you a little bit of background.\r\nElijah, the prophet, lived in the ninth century before Christ. He was a prophet\r\nwho served God during the reign of several kings, not just one king, but many\r\nkings, but one especially bad king, and his name was Ahab and his wife’s name\r\nwas Jezebel.\r\n\r\nNow much of Elijah’s ministry involved the conflict between\r\nhimself and the royal couple over the introduction of pagan worship to Israel.\r\nJezebel was from Tyre and through her influence the worship of Baal Melqart,\r\nwho was the official nature God of Tyre, was being actively brought into the\r\nkingdom. The word Baal or Baal, as it’s pronounced, means master or possessor or\r\nhusband. In pagan religions of the time, very piece of land had its master and\r\nso each place or each town had its version of a master or a Baal deity.\r\n\r\nThat’s\r\nwhy do you have Baal, the name of one city, Baal, the name of another city? Every\r\ncity, every town, every plot of land had this god. In response to this, Elijah\r\nprayed for a drought to come over the land and it did not rain for three\r\nyears. And the point behind this is, that since Baal was a deity that was supposed\r\nto control nature, this drought was a demonstration of this pagan religion’s\r\nemptiness and lack of any power. Elijah, towards the royal couple and\r\nthe country, was saying, you people are starting to follow this God,\r\nthis is the God that’s in charge of nature. Let me show you who’s in charge\r\nof nature.\r\n\r\nAnd so he prayed to Jehovah, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham\r\nand Isaac and Jacob, and prayed and said, no rain. And no rain came for three long\r\nyears. Of course, the drought also made the king and queen greater enemies of\r\nElijah. After three years, Elijah challenged all the prophets of Baal to\r\nmeet him at Mount Carmel to demonstrate who was greater, Jehovah or\r\nBaal. After this meeting, Elijah taunted and ridiculed them and performed a great\r\nmiracle before the assembled people to show that the God he served was\r\nthe true God, and Baal worship was futile. After this great demonstration of\r\npower, Elijah then ordered that the 450 priests of Baal be killed and they were\r\nput to death by the people. The point here was that all of these priests had\r\nbeen appointed by Jezebel and were supported financially by Jezebel, in her\r\nattempt to bring this religion into Israel.\r\n\r\nNow, if this were not enough, he\r\nalso offered another prayer asking God to send rain.\r\nSo after three years, the heavens opened up and the water poured forth. After\r\ndoing these things, realizing that he may be in danger, he escapes\u00a0on foot to another town and that’s where we pick up the reading,\r\nwhere she threatens him and says I swear to you, before the day is over,\r\nyou’re going to be as dead as those priests over there. So he takes off\r\nrunning. I give you this story to underscore the idea that Elijah\r\nexperienced a physical emotional and spiritual rollercoaster for three years,\r\nculminating in the great showdown at Mount Carmel. He is only a man. And if we\r\nread between the lines, we realize that this man is close to burnout, extremely\r\nanxious, extremely stressed, and ready to completely fall apart. Now Elijah\r\nexperienced things that were beyond what normal life requires of ordinary people\r\nand that’s what was causing his – I mean, I, we, don’t have time to get\r\ninto all of it, but I mean, a certain amount of stress is good. You need a\r\ncertain amount of stress to get you up and going, but too much stress, when the\r\nneedle is in the red all the time, too much stress, that leads to burnout\r\n\r\nAnd\r\ntoo much stress sometimes is what happens when too many things are\r\nhappening at the same time. And so in Elijah’s life, if you look over the three\r\nyears, you see, first of all, miracles were done in his name. And you think, well,\r\nthat’s a good thing. But having a miracle done in your name\r\nas you call out to God is a very exciting and stressful thing. There\r\nwas a war going on, that he experienced, a natural disaster. Yeah, he prayed that\r\nthere be no rain. Well, there was no rain for three years, which brought a drought\r\nin the country, and terrible economic loss, and he was the cause of it, and the\r\npeople were blaming him. Threats of death forced travel, he had to run away, he\r\nhad to hide. Have you ever had to run away and hide for your life? I mean, think\r\nabout that for a second.\r\n\r\nImagine, people are looking for you, they\r\nwant to kill you. That’s a pretty stressful thing. And then, of course, the\r\nrejection by society. He’s trying to serve God, he’s trying to do something,\r\nbut everybody, both sides hates him. The king and queen hate him, and the people hate him.\r\nSo people can manage some of these things, but when too many good\r\nthings or too many bad things happen too rapidly, we blow a fuse, and we burn out as protection. Our body is protecting us from destruction, as if our body is\r\nsaying, well, maybe you want to keep going at this pace, but I’m going to cause an\r\nelectrical short circuit here, just to stop everything, so that we don’t\r\ncompletely ruin ourselves. That’s what was going on with Elijah\r\nnow, burnout, has symptoms. And we can recognize these burnout symptoms as we\r\nlook at Elijah and the dialogue that he has with the Lord. So we go back to\r\nchapter 19 and we pick it up in verse 4, the first symptom, if you wish, or one of\r\nthe major symptoms of burnout is despair. In verse 4 he says, “But he went a\r\nday’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree;\r\nand he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now O\r\nLord, take my life.” Even though he had witnessed a great victory, he had\r\ndone great miracles, he was in despair.\r\n\r\nAnd the chief – the\r\nsignifying feeling about despair is there’s no hope. You have no hope. He had\r\nno hope. Not because there was nothing to believe in, not because there was no\r\nproof to support his faith, he had no hope because he couldn’t function\r\nproperly to see these things anymore. Another evidence of burnout is\r\nself-depreciation. I’m no good, nobody loves me. Look at verse 4, and continue\r\nin verse 4, right to the end he says, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my\r\nlife, for I am not better than my fathers.” Self-depreciation. I’m no good, nobody\r\nloves me. Why should I try? Burned-out people are hard on themselves,\r\nno matter what they’ve done, it’s never good enough.\r\nBurnout makes you feel like a failure and nothing can convince you otherwise.\r\nEven if your wife or your husband or your friends tell you, well, no, but look\r\nat all the good things that you’ve done, and you’ve accomplished this, and people\r\nlove you.\r\n\r\nYou just cannot be convinced that there’s anything good about your\r\nlife or your person. Those voices inside your head that tell you,\r\nencourage you, or discourage you, usually are the loudest during the times\r\nthat you feel overstressed and over-worried. One of the symptoms is when that\r\nvoice is constantly negative in your mind, constantly telling you that you’re\r\nnot good, that you are not going to make it, you’re not worthy, then something else\r\nis taking place there.\r\n\r\nAnother symptom is anger and resentment. As I said, it’s a\r\nlong story, so let’s just skip down to verse 10. In this dialogue, that he’s\r\nhaving with God, in chapter 19 he says, “Then Elisha came there to a cave and lodged\r\nthere; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are\r\nyou doing here, Elisha? And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God\r\nof hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your\r\naltars, and killed Your prophets with the sword.\r\n\r\nAnd I alone am left, and they seek\r\nmy life, to take it away.” Do you see the resentment there? Elija felt angry about –\r\nhe felt angry about how he felt. If you do your best, if you try your hardest, if you succeed, what should happen? Well,\r\nyou should feel good, not bad. When the only reward we get from all of our\r\nefforts is fatigue and depression, we need to step back a little bit, because\r\nwe’re close to burnout. He’s, here, I mean, the greatest\r\nvictory, single-handedly defeated all these priests, stopped the invasion of\r\nthis false religion into the country and how does he\r\nfeel? He says I’m the only one left. I’ve tried these and look\r\nwhat’s happened to me. In no other word’s says to God, I did what You wanted\r\nme to do, and look where I am now.\r\n\r\nWhat’s the point of serving You? What did I get\r\nfor all of my effort? Anger, resentment, and the,n of course, loneliness. Verse 14,\r\nskip down to verse 14, he said, “Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the\r\nLord,” repeats this, he repeats it from before, he says, “I’ve been very zealous\r\nfor the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant,\r\ntorn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.\r\n\r\nAnd I alone am\r\nleft, and they seek my life to take it away.” Does that sound familiar? Well, he\r\njust said that a little while before. The Lord is talking to him. Why are you here,\r\nElijah? What’s the problem, Elijah? He says, well, I did what You said, and\r\nlook where I am and I’m all by myself and I’m the only one that’s fighting. And\r\nthe Lord talks to him some more, talks to him some more, and what does Elijah do? He\r\nrepeats the same thing. He’s in shock yyouever notice people in shock? What happens\r\nto them many times, if they’re at least awake, they kind of start repeating the\r\nstory.\r\n\r\nWell, I was just standing there and I went to cross the street and then\r\ncars just came out of nowhere and just brushed me back and I bounced against\r\nthe wall and I hurt my head and my arm is sore. And three minutes later,\r\nfour minutes later, someone else is saying, are you okay? Yeah, well, I just stepped out to go –\r\nIt’s like a broken record. They keep repeating the thing, they’re trying to\r\nabsorb it. He’s trying to absorb it. He can’t quite absorb everything. Why?\r\nBecause he’s saturated with stress and anger and resentment and, here, loneliness.\r\nHe repeated his complaint and with it his greatest worry, that he’d be left alone.\r\nBurnout makes people feel that no one understands them, no one cares, and no one knows how they feel or why they\r\nfeel the way they do. It’s a lonely thing. Elijah lived nearly\r\n3,000 years ago, yet his symptoms and feelings are so very familiar to us who\r\nstruggle today in 2017 with depression low self-esteem resentment, and alienation, in our modern pressure-cooker society.\r\n\r\nBecause people\r\nhave not changed. We’re the same as we have always been. There are some\r\ncommon mistakes that people make when they suffer from too much stress or they’re\r\non the verge of burnout. Aside from the physical feelings of fatigue\r\nand the emotional problems associated with burnout, this condition also pushes\r\nus to make mistakes that we would not normally do if we were emotionally balanced and rested properly. Mistake number one, for example, we focus\r\non feelings, rather than facts. We focus on feelings rather than facts. Elijah\r\nprayed that he might die. He looked inward and he saw the world through the\r\nlens of his feelings, not through the facts of what had happened. I\r\nfeel like a failure, therefore I am a failure. This is called emotional\r\nreasoning and it’s a mistake. I feel lost even though I’ve confessed Christ and\r\nI’ve been baptized and I’m doing the best I can to be faithful, but I feel\r\nguilty, I feel that I’m not worthy, therefore all of what he said must not\r\nbe true because it doesn’t match how I feel.\r\n\r\nWell, brothers and sisters, we’re not\r\nsaved based on what we feel, we are saved based on what we believe and what we\r\ndo. People who are overstressed or burned out are easily drawn into\r\nfocusing and interpreting our lives through our feelings, rather than our\r\nfacts. Mistake number two, we begin comparing ourselves to other people.\r\nElijah cried that he was no better than who? Than his forefathers. We usually\r\ncompare our weaknesses to other people’s strengths. And we always come out – you\r\never notice that? I like to play golf. Who do I compare\r\nmyself to? Well, I compare myself to a guy who plays twenty strokes better\r\nthan I do every time. Or well, you look at the pros on TV and you see it’s\r\none of the pros who makes this fantastic shot, makes it look easy, two\r\nfeet in front of the pin. And then when you try it and it doesn’t work, you – oh man,\r\nwhat’s the matter with me? What’s the matter with me? I’m going to\r\ngive up this game.\r\n\r\nWho are you comparing yourself to? The world champion.\r\nMistake number three, stressed out people motivate themselves with negatives\r\ninstead of positives. Elijah complained that he had been zealous for God, but the\r\npeople had rejected God and his preaching, in verse 10. Do you see it? We\r\nblame ourselves, we punish ourselves with criticism and we label ourselves with\r\nharsh judgments. It’s no wonder we feel bad. We become our worst critics. I always pray that god helps me not to be too critical, and to be\r\nmore gracious with other people. You think I can be critical of you, you ain’t\r\nseen nothing till I start being critical of myself. Why? Because I know me. I know who\r\nI am. I know how hard I tried. You know what I’m saying. So when I level\r\ncriticism at me, whoa it’s got a very pointy edge.\r\n\r\nYou can’t motivate yourself by\r\ncriticizing yourself. I’m not saying we should excuse or just let everything go\r\nby that we do wrong. No, of course not. We need to hold ourselves accountable, but\r\nwe cannot motivate ourselves to be higher and better and more noble and more spiritual,\r\nby continually criticizing ourselves, doesn’t work. Mistake number four, we\r\nexaggerate the negatives. Elijah said I am the only one left.\r\n\r\nLater on, the Lord tells him, yeah, you and 7,000 others. The attitude, or this attitude, degenerates\r\ninto self-pity and despair. So here’s what the cycle looks like, okay, this over-stress, over-anxious cycle. It begins we’re overburdened, we’re overstimulated,\r\nwe’re overworked, we’re overstressed, we’re over worried, too much, too\r\nfast. And it doesn’t have to be bad things, it can be good things. We’ve just got\r\ntoo much, too many plates spinning in the air. This leads to a weakened physical\r\nand mental resistance, as well as a spiritual letdown.\r\n\r\nYou just don’t have\r\nenough gas in the tank to take care of all the things that you’ve been\r\ncommitted to or to take care of all the things that may have happened to you.\r\nThen this condition produces a variety of symptoms, such as anger and depression\r\nand low self-esteem and moodiness and all kinds of things, because these\r\nattitudes drive us to make critical mistakes, such as emotional reasoning, and\r\nfalse comparisons, negative self-judgments, and further alienation from\r\nother people. And then these mistakes produce, what? Well, they produce more\r\nstress. More stress on our system, which perpetuates the vicious cycle leading to\r\ntotal breakdown. And what I’m saying is that sometimes\r\nthe body, again, does not claim any medical knowledge, but I’ve seen it in\r\nmyself – the over-stress, eventually the body takes over and says okay, buddy, you’re about to kill yourself, so we’re going to do something here, we’re\r\ngoing to give you a lot of lower back pain or we’re going to give you some\r\nmigraines or you’re going to have an upset stomach or – we’re going\r\nto do something to just knock you out, break the cycle, because if you keep on\r\nspinning, you’re going to blow up.\r\n\r\nSo God, thankfully, has a remedy\r\nfor burnout, a prescription for burnout, because He is aware of the body’s\r\nfrailty, especially when it is under stress. In the same passage, we\r\nsee the remedy that God uses to renew a burned-out servant named Elijah. The\r\nfirst thing that God prescribes is rest. God gave Elijah rest for his body. In verse 5, go back to verse 5, because I’ve\r\nhad to jump around in passage here. He says, “Elijah, laid down and slept\r\nunder a juniper tree; and behold an angel was touching him, and he said to\r\nhim, “Arise, eat.” Then he looked and behold, it was at his head a bread cake baked on\r\nhot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and laid down again. The angel\r\nof the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because\r\nthe journey is too great for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the\r\nstrength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of\r\nGod.” So the body will short-circuit if it does not receive\r\nrest and nourishment.\r\n\r\nA balance of work rest and leisure is the best\r\nmedicine for a burned-out system. People usually rest until they are\r\nwell enough to repeat the same mistakes that led to the\r\nburnout originally. They’re working 64 hours, 70 hours a week, and then\r\nthey’ve got this over here, and then they’re taking care of a sick aunt, and\r\nthe church things that they’ve got to do, and then they’ve committed\r\nthemselves to something else, and all of a sudden, boom, they burn out.\r\nAnd they can’t do it. They need a rest and\r\nthen they take a break, a vacation, or something, just to recharge the batteries,\r\nand what do they do when that rest is over? Well, they go back to doing the same\r\nthings over again. No changes. They don’t realize that if they repeat the same\r\ntype of things, they’re going to end up in the same place. People usually, as they\r\nsay, rest until they’re well enough to repeat the same old mistakes. What’s\r\nneeded is an attitude that understands that rest and leisure are as important\r\nas work, in developing a balanced and pleasing life to God.\r\n\r\nAnd many of us,\r\nunfortunately, feel guilty when we’re having fun. We feel guilty when we’re\r\nhaving fun. As if, oh, that’s my – my guilty pleasure is, I go fishing.\r\nWhy should you feel guilty about that? And I was thinking the other day, I was\r\ngiving thanks, sometimes in my prayers, I say, today I’m\r\njust going to give thanks. I’m not going to ask for anything.\r\nI’m not going to complain about anything. I’m just going to find the things in my\r\nlife and just say thank you for them. And I realized, as I was making that prayer,\r\nthat almost, I mean, I couldn’t think of an exception, but there may be one out\r\nthere, almost everything that God has created is for our pleasure. I look at\r\nthe sky, the beautiful sky, even with the cloud formation, it gives me pleasure.\r\nPleasure for my eyes.\r\n\r\nLook at that, it’s just amazing. And I smell – the grass gets\r\ncut, and I smell the grass, and what does it – freshly mown grass, right, we\r\nknow, it gives me, what? It gives me pleasure.\r\nI lay my head down on my pillow at night, the first few moments when you –\r\nbefore you go to sleep, oh that feels so good, pleasure. I drink a cold glass of water, pleasure. I feel the hot Sun on my head, in the afternoon, pleasure. I mean, He didn’t have\r\nto create us where almost every single experience that we have involves\r\npleasure of some kind. What kind of God do we have? We have a God that gives us\r\npleasure. Not illicit pleasure. Not sinful pleasure.\r\n\r\nWe don’t have to do things that\r\nare illicit or disobedient to have pleasure, because He’s created\r\neverything in this world to give us some kind of pleasure. We have to\r\nunderstand that life has work in it, of course, and even that can be pleasurable,\r\nbut it also needs rest and it also needs leisure to be properly, to be\r\nbalanced. If you’re overstressed and close to burnout something is wrong. You have to figure out what the wrong\r\nthing is and something has to change to find again the balance. And\r\nthat’s why I’m not throwing this at you as an accusation, I’m saying this is what\r\nyou need to be thinking about if that’s your situation: over-stress anxiety, and burnout. Something will have to change. It might be, that there needs to be\r\nmore leisure. Wouldn’t that be great? Or maybe there needs to be fewer commitments\u00a0or maybe there need to be new commitments, in\r\ndifferent areas.\r\n\r\nI don’t know, but something has to change. Number two in\r\nHis prescription – so we said rest, the next one is release.\r\nGod allowed Elijah to pour out his heart, his frustrations, his fear, and his anger\r\nbefore Him. Again, I’ll read one more time verse nine, “Then he came there to a cave\r\nand lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him,\r\n“What are you doing here, Elijah?” I mean, do you think God didn’t know what he was\r\ndoing here what was he doing? He was giving Elijah a chance to express\r\n\r\nhimself. And he did. “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts;\r\nwhere the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars\r\nkilled your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they seek my life,\r\nto take it away.” He’s just, it’s just pouring out of him. Notice there’s no,\r\ndear Lord, I humbly come before you, my God of hosts and I\r\nappeal to you as your humble servant, Lord. There’s none of that.\r\nIt’s just Elijah, what are you doing here? Oh well, they hurt me, then I hurt them.\r\nThe problem with burnout is that it’s like a low-burning fire\r\ninside that never gets extinguished.\r\n\r\nIt keeps burning and building and\r\ndestroying us from the inside. You can pray and cry and share with others and\r\nenter your heart before God. The emotional energy created by the stress\r\nneeds to be released and released positively, not in a negative way. Some\r\npeople, get released, all right, but how do they do it? Well, they abuse drugs\r\nor alcohol or other things like that. Or they do other self-harming things,\r\nthinking that this will – hey I drive my car at 120 miles an hour,\r\nthat’s how I get some relief. Or I go bungee jumping off a bridge.\r\nYeah, that feels better. There are better safer ways and more constructive ways\r\nto release the raw emotional energy created by over-stress. The third part of his\r\nprescription: is rest, release, and refocusing. Refocusing. Elija was seeing only the\r\nproblem, but in the cave at Horeb, he sought, again, the version and the vision of\r\nGod that had originally sent him to prophesy, he hand heard the voice of the\r\nLord.\r\n\r\nThis time, in verse 11, “So he said, “Go forth,” God is saying, “Go forth and stand on\r\nthe mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and\r\nstrong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before\r\nthe Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake,\r\nbut the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the\r\nLord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of gentle blowing. When\r\nElijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the\r\nentrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Sometimes it isn’t a\r\nchange of place or a change of people that we need, sometimes it’s a resetting\r\nof our sights on God and His Word and His Son Jesus Christ and His Church, that\r\nis truly needed.\r\n\r\nIn other words, sometimes we need to re-establish our spiritual\r\npriorities because many times the overstressed anxieties are caused\r\nbecause we have confused our priorities. We’ve taken God, who\r\nshould be up there, and we’ve put Him down here. Or we’ve taken our spouse, for\r\nexample, which should be our main priority, and we put them down here,\r\nbecause, well, I got a lot of work to do and my career is demanding this and I play, whatever, I play soccer on Thursday and\r\nFriday. But for some reason or another,\r\nI’ve taken my spouse, who should be my priority, and I’ve put her down in\r\nspot number four.\r\n\r\nAnd I don’t realize that spot number four, her being in spot\r\nnumber four, is causing a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety in my\r\nmarriage and my personal life and her life and the life of the children. So sometimes we need to refocus\r\nand reorder. So: rest, release, refocus, recommitment. Recommitment. As far as\r\nElijah was concerned, one task was over, it had been a challenge, it had been a\r\nburden, and after a time of rest and prayer and renewal, Elijah was given a new\r\nministry, a different service to perform for the Lord.\r\n\r\nThis time we go to verse 15.\r\nThe Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and\r\nwhen you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king of Aram; and Jehu the son of\r\nNimshi you shall anoint a king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-me hola you shall anoint as prophet in your place.” So God gives him another task.\r\nThere’s work to be done, you need to go. You need to go anoint a new\r\nking. You need to find another assistant, a new prophet.\r\n\r\nMany times the best way to\r\nbeat burnout is to be active in different ways, with different people,\r\npursuing different goals. Not always, but sometimes. If our focus is on God and His\r\npurpose, He will be able to direct us into some service that will give us\r\nfresh hope a renewed sense of purpose, and enthusiasm. He will\r\nalso supply us with health to do the work at hand. He noticed that Elijah, this\r\nguy was burnt out, he was toast. He had given his all. He wasn’t the same\r\nman as he was before, so what does He do? He gives him a younger man to work with\r\nhim, to help him, to mentor, to carry on the work. Sometimes part of the stress is, who’s going to continue the good\r\nstuff that I’ve been doing? Who’s going to take care of my family? Who’s going to\r\ntake care of my ministry my job or the business that I’d built up?\r\nI’ve spent so much time working on this and now I’m getting tired and I’m\r\ngetting old.\r\n\r\nWho’s going to take over? Who’s going to bring it to fruition? Who\r\nwill love it enough that they won’t let it die? That they’ll continue it with the\r\nsame zeal that I had. These are real worries that people have. Elijah was\r\nhuman like all of us here, who nearly burned out because of the pressures of\r\nhis service to the Lord; but God renewed him with rest for his\r\nbody, release for his soul, the refocusing for his spirit, and a recommitment for\r\nhis heart. Also, a reinforcement for his ministry, and that would be Elisha. God\r\nnot only cares for us, He knows exactly what we need, for what ails us, no matter\r\nwhat the generation is that we live in. So the question begs, are you overanxious,\r\nstressed, burned out? Do you recognize yourself, whether you’re a man or a woman,\r\nwhether you’re older or younger, whether you’re married or single? Do you\r\nrecognize yourself in Elijah? Is there a little bit of Elijah in you? Are his\r\nsymptoms, your symptoms? Have you given up on man’s solutions to fix the problems,\r\nworldly ways to be renewed: denial, escapism, materialism, medication, or\r\nhedonism, all the isms?\r\n\r\nI encourage you to try God’s prescription for burnout.\r\nJust a reminder: number one, find the proper balance between work and rest,\r\neven if it means less money. It’s not all about money, brothers and sisters.\r\nNumber two, express your feelings to God honestly in prayer, and do it often and\r\ndo it sincerely. Number three, reestablish your priorities,\r\nputting Christ and His kingdom first in your life. Once again, this will then\r\nproperly order all of your other priorities. And number four, begin seeking\r\nnew ways to serve the Lord through His church, to serve your family, to serve\r\nyour career. Sometimes working on different things with different people\r\nhelps us in our renewal process. So if this prescription means that you need to\r\nbe baptized, for example, or you need to be restored through prayer, then, of\r\ncourse, we wait for you to come forward as we stand and as we sing the song of\r\ninvitation.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TPcvKa_1WrA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As found on YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n\u1da6\u02e2 \u02b8\u1d52\u1d58\u02b3 \u1d4d\u1d58\u1d43\u02b3\u1d48\u1da6\u1d43\u207f \u1d43\u207f\u1d4d\u1d49\u02e1 \u1d57\u02b3\u02b8\u1da6\u207f\u1d4d \u1d57\u1d52 \u02e2\u1d49\u207f\u1d48 \u02b8\u1d52\u1d58 \u1d43\u207f \u1d58\u02b3\u1d4d\u1d49\u207f\u1d57 \u1d50\u1d49\u02e2\u02e2\u1d43\u1d4d\u1d49? \u026a\ua730 \u028f\u1d0f\u1d1c \ua731\u1d07\u1d07\u1d0b \u0262\u1d1c\u026a\u1d05\u1d00\u0274\u1d04\u1d07 \u1d00\u0274\u1d05 \u026a\u0274\ua731\u026a\u0262\u029c\u1d1b\ua731 \u026a\u0274\u1d1b\u1d0f \u1d1b\u029c\u1d07 \u1d18\u1d00\ua731\u1d1b, \u1d18\u0280\u1d07\ua731\u1d07\u0274\u1d1b, \u1d00\u0274\u1d05 \ua730\u1d1c\u1d1b\u1d1c\u0280\u1d07 \u1d21\u026a\u1d1b\u029c q\u1d1c\u1d07\ua731\u1d1b\u026a\u1d0f\u0274\ua731 \u1d00\u0299\u1d0f\u1d1c\u1d1b \u029f\u1d0f\u1d20\u1d07, \u0280\u1d07\u029f\u1d00\u1d1b\u026a\u1d0f\u0274\ua731\u029c\u026a\u1d18\ua731, \u1d0f\u0280 \u1d0d\u1d0f\u0274\u1d07\u028f – \u1d04\u1d0f\u0274\u0274\u1d07\u1d04\u1d1b \u1d21\u026a\u1d1b\u029c \u028f\u1d0f\u1d1c\u0280 \u1d00\u0274\u0262\u1d07\u029f \u1d1b\u1d0f\u1d05\u1d00\u028f <a href=\"https:\/\/aef5aa-t-ztics23v7-ljxbw4j.hop.clickbank.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/aef5aa-t-ztics23v7-ljxbw4j.hop.clickbank.net\/<\/a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/aef5aa-t-ztics23v7-ljxbw4j.hop.clickbank.net\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 176px; height: 176px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ibb.co\/Mf9Bwx3\/R-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the National Institute of Mental Health, here in America, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, over-stress, burnout, those types of things, anxiety disorders, affect roughly 40 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 54. These are not stats, like, from 20 years ago. These are like April 2016 – 40 million Americans. We have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/archives\/153919\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dealing with Anxiety (I Kings 19:1-18) | Mike Mazzalongo | BibleTalk.tv<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,7,409,140,6],"tags":[696,61415,61416],"class_list":["post-153919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anxiety","category-getting-help","category-health","category-lgbtqq","category-reducing-triggers","tag-anxiety","tag-bibletalk","tag-church-of-christ"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/maxresdefault-2024-11-28T193236.888.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153964,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153919\/revisions\/153964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/effectsofanxiety.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}