But [Elijah] 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, and said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”

—1 Kings 19:4

I took a class for my master’s degree called Introduction to Rhetoric. For this class, I had to do a rather large research project on the topic of my choice. I chose to research worldviews. I don’t mean that I researched different worldviews, but I studied what a worldview is and how it affects people. 

I thought it was an interesting topic considering how easy it is to come across people with a worldview that contradicts itself. Maybe it’s skewed by prejudice or maybe it’s filled with double standards. What I discovered in my research is that for a worldview to be valid, it has to be consistent within itself. For example, if I believe J. R. R. Tolkien was the best fantasy writer of all time, I cannot also believe that C. S. Lewis was better than him and still hold a valid worldview. Silly example, but the principle works—for our worldview to be a valid one, all our beliefs must line up, they must be consistent.

This is why I’m so convinced that the worldview laid out in the Bible is the truth. Because whether we’re talking about the reason all humanity has an underlying moral code or the reason we have seven days in a week instead of twelve, I have not found any area of life that is not treated by Scripture in a way that is consistent with the world around me. And that includes mental health.

In this series, we’re going to look at what the Bible has to say about mental health. Considering the fact that the ancient world didn’t have very many psychiatrists in practice, the Bible doesn’t mention specific disorders, but God cares about our mental health just as much as He cares about our physical and spiritual health.

We can see this with what happened with Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Elijah had just been used by God to defeat 450 prophets to the false god Baal by calling fire from heaven to consume an offering that fire shouldn’t have been able to touch. It’s a magnificent moment that turns the people back to God. But as a result, Jezebel, the queen at the time, swears to kill him to avenge the deaths of the 450 prophets.

Elijah flees to the desert, and there he begs God to end his life. To put this in context, suicide was not an option for the Israelites. It was considered an insult to God, so when Eli says he wants God to end his life, he is expressing suicidal thoughts. Asking God to end his life was his suicide attempt. 

I’m not going to pretend to be a psychiatrist, but it’s a pretty safe bet that Elijah was struggling with depression. He had just seen a tangible demonstration of God’s power, but once things went wrong, he fell into a dark place so deep he thought the only way out was death. And believe it or not, I find this comforting.

Not the part where Elijah suffered so deeply. I hate that anyone goes through that, but we’re talking about Elijah here. The guy whose prayers brought an end to a drought; the guy who raised a widow’s son from the dead; the guy who called fire from heaven; the guy who, through God’s power, outran horses (no joke, check the end of 1 Kings 18); the guy who never died because God took him to heaven in a whirlwind; the guy who stood alongside Jesus and Moses at the transfiguration to represent the prophets of God throughout history. This is the man who struggled with his mental health. So when we’re in a similar place of struggle, looks like we’re in good company!

But there’s something even better in this passage if we look a few verses later. It wouldn’t be horribly surprising if Elijah got a stern spiritual talking to about having faith since he’d just witnessed a miracle, but that’s not what happens. What God does instead is absolutely amazing—He sends an angel to minister to Elijah and bring him healing through rest, food, water, and connection.

Wanna know what some of the most common strategies for improving mental health are? Get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet, drink plenty of water, and connect with others because your brain is a physical part of your body and it needs those things to be healthy and work properly.

I hope this series helps us see how the science surrounding mental health is consistent with what the Bible says about how we should live. In my opinion, the connections are astounding proofs of God’s existence and goodness, but even more, I hope we begin to see God’s heart for the state of our minds.

In the middle of the desert, God saw Elijah and his need, and He sent him the care he needed. He wasn’t mad at Elijah for not having enough faith. He wasn’t upset that Elijah wasn’t pulling himself out of that difficult place. He just cared. He cared about His child’s pain, and He came to help. And just so we’re clear, we’re no different. He cares about our mental struggles too.