I turn and give to you a beautiful
portion of the Word of God, and I
pray it shall mean much to you.
For if Elijah had just slowed down a
little bit, in that moment of discouragement, he
never in a thousand worlds would have looked
up and said, Oh Lord, let me die.
You know something?
I've gotten into all of my trouble when
I refused to take enough rest.
Do you realize I work seven days a
week?
Most folk you know have Sundays off.
There are those who have Saturdays off.
Saturday is one of my biggest days.
That's the day when I can go to
the office and do everything that I've wanted
to do all week.
The employees are gone.
It's quiet.
I do a full week's work on Saturday.
And then, of course, there's the sermon and
the service for Sunday.
That's seven days a week on very little
sleep.
And then suddenly I find out I'm getting
a little irritable.
My nerves are bad.
And when I get to the place where
I find that I'm snapping folk off, or
walking down the street, I almost feel like
turning and running the other way when someone
says, Aren't you Kathryn Kuhlman?
And I feel like saying, I'm somebody else.
Then I know it's time to slow down
and get a good eight hours of sleep.
We're human.
And I'm glad to know that Elijah was
just as human as I am.
And you are just as human as we
are.
Oh, there it is.
Let me read you a portion of it.
There's nothing, you know, as wonderful as the
Word of God.
Nothing as powerful as just God's Word.
And maybe, in this very portion of the
Word of God, you'll find out what you
need.
For sometimes, some good sleep, some good old
-fashioned rest can be the best medicine in
the world.
That's right.
I don't have anything better for one than
good old-fashioned rest.
Oh, the magic restoring power of sleep.
If you don't believe it, let me give
you God's Word.
The 19th chapter of 1 Kings.
It's here.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had
done.
And with all how he had slain all
the prophets with the sword, then Jezebel sent
a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the
gods do to me, and more also, if
I make not thy life as the life
of one of them by tomorrow about this
time.
And when he saw that, he arose, he
went for his life, came to Beersheba.
The word doesn't say it, but believe me,
he was scared stiff, which belongeth to Judah,
and he left his servants there.
But he himself went a day's journey into
the wilderness, and came and sat down under
a juniper tree, and he requested for himself
that he might die.
Can't you see?
Oh, I just love this.
To me, this is rare.
Elijah!
Go back, if you will, please.
See that marvelous account.
It had only been a few hours prior
to this, where he was a mighty spiritual
giant.
There he stood, meeting Ahab, putting forth the
greatest challenge that any human being has ever
put forth, actually challenging Ahab.
Oh, he had stood only an hour before,
just hours, that's all.
And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that
Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord
God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let
it be known this day that Thou art
God in Israel, and that I am Thy
servant, and that I have done all these
things after Thy word.
And then what happened?
Then the fire of the Lord fell, and
consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and
the stone, and the dust, and licked up
the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they
fell on their faces, and they said, The
Lord, He is the God!
The Lord, He is the God!
Why, one would have thought that Elijah would
never have known a moment of discouragement again
in all of his life.
After having God manifest Himself in such a
miraculous way, after this glorious victory, after this
answer to prayer, after all that he had
seen, one would have thought that this man
of God, this mighty man of God, could
never have been discouraged.
But you know something?
He was human too.
Just as human as we are this hour.
Yes, ma'am.
And the most beautiful thing about the whole
thing is that God knew He was human.
Sure.
He knoweth our frame.
He remembereth that we are dust.
And when Elijah tried to run away, God's
eye was upon him.
And even while he was running, God was
saying, This child of mine needs sleep.
He doesn't know it.
He doesn't have sense enough to know it.
So I'm going to just have to slow
him down.
Just slow him down a little.
He'll be all right after he gets a
little sleep and a little rest.
And as he lay and slept under a
juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him
and said unto him, Arise and eat.
And he looked up.
And behold, there was a cake, bacon on
the coals, and a cruise of water at
his head.
Do you want to know who baked the
very first angel food cake?
An angel.
That's right.
God, the heavenly Father, had an angel bake
the first angel food cake.
And you want to know who ate the
first angel food cake?
The man who looked up and said, Oh,
let me die.
Let me die.
Oh, please, take away my life, Lord, for
I'm not better than my father's.
And the master not only gave him rest,
he sent an angel to have a little
cake baked for him when he awakened.
He knew he'd be all right.
The heavenly Father knew that he really didn't
mean what he said.
Elijah really didn't want to die.
He would have been the most disappointed person
in the world if he had really awakened
and found he was dead.
He didn't mean it.
He didn't really want his life to be
taken away from him.
He had too much work to do for
the master.
But he spoke those words when his body
was tired.
He was fatigued.
I've done the same thing.
So have you.
I'm glad the master didn't always take me
at my word.
And when I check back, I find that
I oftentimes spoke those words when I needed
sleep, when I needed rest.
I was tired.
I'm human.
And he did eat and drink and laid
him down again.
And the angel of the Lord came again
the second time and touched him and said,
Arise and eat, because the journey is too
great for thee.
You've had your sleep.
You're rested.
Come on now.
Arise and eat.
There's a long journey ahead.
I've got more work for you to do.
Come on.
I need you in my vineyard.
Square your shoulders and slow down a little.
You can do better work for me if
you'll just remember.
For he knoweth our frame and he remembereth
that we are done.