A fellow blogger over at “The Healing Arena” has a post entitled, “What’s that voice in your head?”  A portion of it follows:

Why are you thinking the way you are thinking now?

Why are you acting like that now?

Why did you just take that strange decision which is very unlike yourself?

• You think God’s attitude towards you has changed because of some short-coming in you or a mistake you made.

• or you think you are unworthy of love and appreciation because you’re too far down the drain.

• Some devil is whispering some nasty stuff into your ear and you’re beginning to believe it.

• Some nay-sayer is speaking negativism into your mind and it’s taking its toll on you.

More of it can be found at: https://thehealingarena.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/whats-that-voice-in-your-head/

If you follow that link (hopefully it opens up in a new page so you don’t lose your place here) you will find that Elijah is mentioned.  Now she did not go into any detail regarding Elijah, that might have gotten too far off track, but I shall take that risk here.

Elijah was fresh off his world-famous victory and should have been super-empowered to keep fighting the battle and gaining incredible victories as he smashed all his foes left and right.  So why is he running away instead of pressing forward and taking advantage of the momentum?

God provides him some food to strengthen him for the journey he is taking but He does not tell Elijah to go back to where he should be.  Instead He allows Elijah to continue on in his journey and when Elijah is ready God assures / reminds him “You are not alone.”  He then gives Elijah a new assignment.

A few years ago I participated in an activity where I was the victim.  A blindfold was securely placed and the folk around me started saying things like: “You’re no good,”  You really messed up again,” “You’re such a loser,” and other things of that nature.  Have you ever told yourself things like that?

At first I almost laughed because I knew all those people and I knew that they all liked me, excepting for maybe one or two of them, also I was their assistant pastor at the time.  However the “voices” started taking a toll on me and memories of some of my own past shortcoming and failures suddenly started coming to mind, some of which I have beaten myself up for, and I remembered the voices of some others in my life who didn’t like me and some negative things they had said.  Suddenly I did not feel like laughing for I could feel a wave of dark depression enveloping me, ready to choke me.

The voice of one of those physically present, started to crack.  Since I’d had a counseling session or two with her I knew she was starting to hurt and I wanted to stop the experiment but the “key phrase” had not been uttered (I didn’t even know what the “key phrase” was, they all knew what it was but the moderator had purposely kept me uninformed) I was not the one in control and it was not yet time for the exercise to stop.  Nevertheless, at that moment, I wasn’t feeling like I could really have given any words of encouragement to anyone.

Then I heard another voice which I could not really quite comprehend, at least not initially.  It was saying, “You’re good,” “You are loved,” “You’re a child of The King,” etc.  It was like a tiny flicker of light somewhere in the suffocating darkness.  I began to focus on that solitary, still, small, voice and the depressing feeling began to recede but only as long as I could focus on that one voice.  Then, finally, the key phrase, “Well done,”  was uttered, everyone went quiet.  The blindfold was removed.  The experiment was over.

The person in charge, the moderator, offered a quick apology as she realized my eyes had “sweated a little bit” but I assured them all that it was okay.  In the discussion we all had following the experiment I learned that she had actually been speaking for awhile before I ever heard her.  It was when I heard the hurt behind the antagonistic voice and had empathy for its owner that I finally heard the positive voice.

Gretiana’s statement, “Just manage to go out there and be good to someone, even if you need it more, even if they don’t deserve it.” triggered my memory and inspired this blog posting.  It is not just in that little experiment where that bit of advice worked, I’ve seen it work on several occasions in real life situations.  I’ve heard the testimony of others.

Going through a rough time?  Cheer up. It’s not over yet.

  Breathe in deeply … c’mon humor me … now exhale.

  What is the point?  God is not finished with you here yet.  Your special task probably still lies out there and you’ve got more preparation to go through.  Now matter what happens always remember:

You are not alone, He, Jesus, is there.

He is not shouting.  His is a still, small, voice.  Funny how people flock to the motivational speakers but none of them comes even close to being as good as Jesus.  He knows all about you and He is there, nearby.  One day He will utter the key phrase “Well done….”  My eyes will probably get all sweaty on that day, too.

• Pastor Ward Clinton