Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
8 26 2026
When the Warrior Wants to Die and GOD’S UNBREAKABLE COURAGE
Fear is not the absence of fear; it is the presence of faith.
Max Lucado puts it this way: “Fear is expecting Satan to move. Faith is expecting God to move.”
I have been thinking about that a lot lately because I have been reading so much about despair, extreme discouragement, depression, and that dark cloud that can become so heavy that people can actually feel it physically.
I lost a friend to suicide eight weeks ago, and since then I have become especially sensitive to people who have lost hope—maybe even all hope. I don’t want to soften that word today.
Suicide is real. Depression is real. Despair is real.
And for some people, the battle gets so deep that death begins to look like the only way out.
But I also believe this: the darkness does not get the final word.
The Bible doesn’t hide this kind of pain from us. Elijah was one of the greatest prophets who ever lived, a man of prayer and extraordinary faith. He stood on Mount Carmel and challenged 850 false prophets. He prayed, and fire fell from heaven. He prayed again, and after a three-year drought, rain came. He even outran King Ahab’s chariot. This was not a weak man. This was a spiritual warrior. And then Jezebel threatened his life, and suddenly this mighty man of God ran for his life, sat under a broom tree, and said, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life.” That’s 1 Kings 19:4.
Think about that. Elijah didn’t say, “Lord, make my circumstances better.” He said, “Take my life.” The man who had just called fire down from heaven was now asking God to let him die. Depression and despair don’t always show up because someone has no faith. Sometimes they show up after an exhausting battle, when the warrior has been fighting so long that there is nothing left in the tank.
And notice what God did. He didn’t condemn Elijah. He didn’t say, “What kind of prophet are you? After all I’ve done for you, how dare you feel this way?” God let him sleep. Then He sent an angel to feed him. Then He let him sleep again. Then He fed him again. Sometimes the first thing God does for a discouraged soul is not give a sermon. Sometimes He gives rest, nourishment, and care. Eventually Elijah went to the mountain, and God met him there.
That matters because depression is not automatically a sin. Anxiety, fear, grief, and depression are emotions and experiences that can become dangerous when they consume us, but experiencing them does not mean you have failed God. Even Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, experienced such anguish that His sweat became like drops of blood. Yet He took His agony to His Father. Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence.” When your heart is breaking, you don’t run away from God because you are hurting. You run toward Him with the hurt. Run to the Father crying, bleeding, even screaming but run to Him, do not isolate yourself. That is what Satan wants you to do.
And sometimes that means wrestling in prayer. Jacob wrestled with God through the night. He walked away limping, but he walked away changed. There are seasons when faith isn’t a Sunday-morning feeling. Faith is getting up in the middle of the night and saying, “God, I don’t understand this. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. But I’m still here, and I’m still reaching for You.”
We live in the “age of anxiety”. I’m not talking about feels like…looks like… No, we are there! Every day brings another headline, another tragedy, another political fight, another diagnosis, another divorce, another child rebelling, another financial crisis, another relationship falling apart. Bad news can become a constant soundtrack in our minds. And when you add personal pain to the noise of the world, it becomes overwhelming, if we are on on guard.
But here’s where we have to train our thoughts. We cannot allow what we see to become greater than what we know. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Faith doesn’t pretend the darkness isn’t there. Faith looks directly at the darkness and says, “God is still here. God will deliver me. He will see me through this…I will put my hope in the Lord.”
Elijah eventually discovered that too: That he was not alone. He believed he was the only one left. God told him there were 7,000 others who had not bowed their knees to Baal. Elijah had isolated himself so deeply that his perception had become his reality. He thought, “Nobody understands. Nobody is left. I’m the only one.” But God knew better.
That is one of Satan’s most dangerous strategies: isolation. A wounded animal that separates itself from the herd becomes vulnerable. And people can become vulnerable in the same way. The enemy wants us divided, hidden, ashamed, and convinced that nobody could possibly understand what we’re going through. But God’s design is community. “Two are better than one,” Ecclesiastes 4:9 says. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” — Matthew 18:20.
Online church can be wonderful. A sermon can encourage you. A worship song can reach you. But there are so many moments when you need somebody sitting across the table from you. You need somebody who will look you in the eye and say, “You’re not walking through this alone.” Sometimes the most Godly thing you can do is stop isolating yourself and go rub shoulders with other believers. God designed us to need each other. To hold hands. Pray together and be encouraged together. You would be amazed at how empowering your dark story can actually encourage those who are listening, because they realize they are not alone.
And here’s something else I’ve learned: when you are drowning in your own despair,
sometimes God begins lifting you by allowing you to help somebody else.
Ask Him, “God, who can I encourage today? Who can I bless? Who needs me to show up?” It doesn’t mean your pain disappears. It means your pain doesn’t get to become your entire identity. Please grab hold of this.
Elijah wanted to die, but God wasn’t finished with him. And here’s the astonishing part: the man who once said, “Take my life,” never experienced death. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. The man who wanted to die never saw the grave.
I don’t think that’s an accident.
Maybe today you are sitting under your own broom tree. Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe you’re depressed. Maybe you’ve been fighting a battle nobody knows about. Maybe you’ve even had thoughts of suicide. I want you to hear this clearly: your current pain is not a prophecy about your future. What you feel today does not tell you what tomorrow will bring.
Take one step toward the light.
Tell somebody. Make the call. Get out of isolation. Ask for help.
Pray when you can pray, and let somebody pray for you when you can’t. God met Elijah under that tree, and He can meet you in the darkest place you have ever been.
Fear expects Satan to move. Faith expects God to move.
So don’t quit in the middle of the story. You may not be able to see the next chapter yet, but God can.
“He will never leave you nor forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:5
And if you’re standing at that final step today, please don’t take it alone. Stay. Reach out. Let somebody sit with you. There is still another chapter. If you don’t have someone you feel you could call. Reach out to me…Please. You are not alone.
1. What happens when what you see becomes greater than what you know—and how do you train your thoughts to move from despair back toward faith? ·
2. Who is in your life right now that may be sitting under their own “broom tree,” isolated and losing hope—and what would happen if you were the person who reached out and simply said, “You are not alone”.
Thank you for spending these few minutes with me today. My prayer is that these devotionals don’t simply give you something to think about, but draw you into a deeper love for Jesus Christ and community.
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If you’d like to go even deeper, I’d love to invite you to join me beginning Tuesday, September 1st, for my free six-week online course, Discovering Jesus. We’ll meet Tuesday evenings from 7:00–8:30 p.m. as we explore the foundational truths of our faith and, more importantly, deepen our relationship with Christ. You’re welcome to invite your spouse, family members, friends, or neighbors. I’ll provide all of the materials at no charge. Just let me know. . To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/zkb-dxcq-iau
Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus…because He truly is the Treasure. Blessings,
Josh Groban: WHEN I LOOK AT YOU
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