The Sunday After: Encouragement for the Weary Pastor (1 Kings 19)
The candle had burned to a stub in the parsonage at Newington. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, lay face down across his bed. Sunday had been glorious. Five thousand souls had leaned in at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, hanging on every word. The choir had soared. The altar had been crowded. Heaven had felt close enough to touch.
But it was Monday morning now. And the man God used to move multitudes couldn’t move himself out from under the covers.
Spurgeon called it his “Monday depression.” He wrote about it openly. He once confessed he could not preach unless he had wept first. He knew something every shepherd knows, but few will admit the higher Sunday flies, the deeper Monday falls.
If that’s where you are this morning, friend, take heart. You’re in good company. And you’re in a familiar text.
The Crash
Open your Bible to 1 Kings 19. Elijah has just called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal have been silenced. The whole nation has fallen on its face crying, “The LORD, He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39 NKJV).
It is the greatest Sunday of Elijah’s life.
And then comes verse three: “And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life.” The same prophet who outran a chariot now runs from a woman’s threat. He collapses under a juniper tree and prays the saddest prayer in Scripture — “It is enough! Now, LORD, take away my life” (v. 4).
Sunday’s victory set up Monday’s valley.
The Care
What does God do with His broken prophet? He doesn’t rebuke him. He doesn’t lecture him. He doesn’t even quote Scripture to him.
He feeds him.
An angel touches Elijah and says, “Arise and eat.” Elijah eats, sleeps, and eats again. The angel returns: “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you” (v. 7).
Pastor, hear that today. The journey is too great for you. It always was. That’s why grace came with bread and water before it ever came with assignments. A.T. Robertson called this “the ministry of the milk and the loaf.” Heaven’s recovery room for tired prophets.
The Call Back
God doesn’t end Elijah’s ministry under that tree. He just lets him rest. Then He calls him forward toward Mount Horeb, where a still small voice is waiting. (We’ll meet that voice together on Wednesday.)
The same God who fed Elijah is feeding us. The same hand that touched His weary prophet is reaching for His weary pastor this morning.
A deacon came by to visit Spurgeon that Monday and left a note. The note simply said, “Pastor, we love you. Eat something. Sleep. We’ll see you Wednesday.” It was the right word at the right time.
I hope this is too. That’s what we all need.
Keep Looking Up!
May God lift up your day.
If this passage encourages you, you may also love my book Make It Rain — a deeper study of Elijah’s faith and the kind of prayer life God answers. James 5:17 reminds us he was “as human as we are.” So are you.
Related devotionals: Fight discouragement · Eisenhower’s D-Day faith · The sermon no one heard
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If today’s devotional spoke to your heart, my books carry these same themes deeper. Stories of God moving in ordinary lives, scripture for tired pastors and weary parents, and steady reminders that heaven is closer than you think.