Graham launched the first part of our series looking at the subject of Wellbeing on Sunday. You can catch up below...

During his preach Graham reflected on a story from the life of Elijah an Old Testament hero. Elijah was a mighty prophet who led Israel faithfully in the context of a period of national and spiritual decline. 

When we think of the Elijah we usually think of someone who has it all sorted but as we read the account in 1 Kings 18 & 19, this isn’t the whole picture. It seems all of a sudden after a period of intense activity it all goes wrong and he runs away. 

Queen Jezebel threatens Elijah with death, escapes but then enters into a deep depression and asks God to take his life! What is odd is that Elijah was aware he wasn’t popular, he knew that Jezebel wouldn’t be happy, he’d been threatened before, but the threat this time seems to have landed in a new way in his mind. 

Elijah was wiped out, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Sound familiar? It’s almost as though in these moments Elijah had completely forgotten what God had called him to be! Many problems in life can stem from this issue, when we forget who we are and what we are called to be, we can become totally disillusioned. 

Elijah very quickly went from powerful prophet to washed up man. 

Graham asked an interesting question: "if you were asked to go and help Elijah what would you do? What would you say?" 

So what would you do? Would you lead him in prayer? Would you remind him of previous promises? Would you open up biblical truths? 

What does God do? He sends an angel (1 Kings 19) who brought him warm bread and water, then let him rest. It happened twice. 

This is a fascinating moment in scripture. What Elijah needed most was food and rest, before anything else, he needed to recoup his strength. 

This shows us that God cares about how we are doing physically!

Sometimes we just need to slow down and rest. May be that is all you need to know today. God cares about your physical health and in this season he may be calling you to simply rest and be refreshed. 

In the account God does listen, he does instruct, he does restore and recommission but first of all he restores the physical man. 

If you want a second scripture to confirm this, then you can’t do much better than the words of Jesus in Matthew: 

"Come to me, all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry; I will give you rest. Walk with me, learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace and you will find rest for your souls. For my work is easy and my burden is light." - Jesus - Matthew 11:28-30

Elijah’s life went quickly from a moment of great faith and action to fear. He was exhausted, he needed to have his energy and faith restored, he was then encouraged and recommissioned. Hearing God’s words over our lives changes things, for Elijah it fuelled his faith once more. 

There is a real sense God wants to bring breakthrough in this season. Let me encourage you if you need breakthrough, don’t just hope for it, expect it. We trust in the God of the breakthrough (2 Samuel 5:20), the suddenly. As we go through this series we don’t want to just learn lots of information about wellbeing, we believe God wants to break in and do things in our lives. 

If your first reaction to his is “you just don’t know what my life is like” then be encouraged, God can take broken men and women and restore them. Just look at what He did in Elijah’s life...

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Watch the full series here:



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More episodes will be added as we progress through the series. You can watch and listen to other series and talks by visiting our media page: jubilee.org.uk/media 

Why not read the book which helped us shape this series? 

“God’s Plan for your Wellbeing” by Dave Smith - This book will help you delve deeper into this subject.

From the back cover:

The UK’s #1 concern, from Cabinet to classroom, is wellbeing.

Dave Smith, writing from personal experience, leads us on a 50-day adventure to improve our physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, financial and vocational health. This book is a simple and easily accessible guide for individuals and groups to take next steps towards greater wellbeing. Informative and practical, bit upon biblical principles, this guide acts as a personal Satnam in a journey towards greater resilience and a richer quality of life. We discover that God really does have a plan for our overall health and sets us on a course for a lifetime of ever-increasing wellbeing!

Recommendations:

Dave Smith is one of the most gifted Christian leaders in the UK today and I am delighted that he has produced this exciting new book to help all of us grow in wellbeing. Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of HTB and pioneer of Alpha

Dave offers bite-sized daily meditations and practical next-steps suggestions to help us on our journey of increasing wellbeing. As someone who has been through my own struggles with wellbeing, I can’t recommend this timely book enough. Simon Thomas, TV presenter, author and podcaster

Who is Dr Dave Smith?
Dave became a Christian while studying at Oxford University, where he went on to complete a doctorate in church history. He and his wife, Karen, moved to Peterborough in 1988 to start KingsGate Community church - now a large, multicultural, intergenerational, multisite church. Dave has a heart to see a revival of healthy believers and churches who in turn impact their neighbourhoods and the nations! He loves walking and is a avid Manchester City fan!

You can buy a copy here