This is Lead in 10. I'm Chris Moore. And let me ask you something. What do you do when you are the leader? But no one seems to be following. You've done your best. You prayed hard, you tried to lead well, but you look around and you feel like you're standing up there all alone. Maybe your team isn't responding, your family doesn't seem to care. Your vision feels stuck, and your passion starting to flicker worse. You're beginning to wonder. Did I miss God? Is it even worth it anymore? If you've ever had those thoughts, you're not alone because today we're talking about what to do when you feel like you're leading alone. Let's look at the prophet Elijah in one Kings chapter 19. This man had just come off the spiritual mountaintop. Literally, he stood on Mount Carmel and called Down Fire from Heaven. He faced off with 450 prophets, a Baal, and he won. He prayed and rain returned after a long drought. He experienced victory vindication. He felt the power and he got public affirmation. But isn't it wild how often the valley comes. Right after the mountaintop, right after his victory, Jezebel sends one threat and Elijah crumbles. He runs, he isolates, and in verse four, he asks God to end his life. But then we read in verse nine and he came vi unto a cage. And then we read this in verse nine, and he came dither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said unto him, what do is thou here, Elijah one Kings chapter 19, verse nine in Elijah, he pours out his heart. He says, I've been faithful. I've done all I know to do, and I'm the only one left. Can you hear it? The pain of loneliness, the burden of leadership, the sting of feeling like your obedience didn't move the needle, at least not in the way that you thought it should have. What happens next is one of the most beautiful moments in all of scripture, God tells Elijah to stand on the mountain because he's about to pass by. And then comes the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. But God wasn't in any of that. Then came a still small voice. God didn't rebuke Elijah, he whispered. And in that whisper, God reminded Elijah of something huge. Yet have I left me 7,000 in Israel. All the knees which have not bowed unto be it's in verse 18. You are not as alone as you think. Even the boldest leaders are gonna walk through lonely valleys, but God is never absent and he often speaks not in the chaos, but in the quiet. If you're feeling like Elijah, if you're tired, you're discouraged, you're ready to give up. Here are four reminders straight from his story and the bigger picture of scripture. Okay. Number one, expect valleys after mountaintops. This is one of the most overlooked patterns in leadership. After the victory comes the vulnerability after the mountaintop comes the valley. Why?'cause valleys are where roots go deep. They're where characters formed. They're often the bridge to the very next mountain. Elijah wasn't failing, he was transitioning and God was meeting him in that in between, you know, as a leader, as those that are in ministry especially, they experience mountaintops. I can't tell you the number of times that I have seen a pastor who. Goes to do a revival service, goes to some type of crusade, maybe goes on a mission trip, and they experience this huge spiritual high and they come back home to the regular work that God has for them. And they're expecting that high to continue, not that they're going to enter the valley, the day to day, the mundane. And yet that always happens. We should be expecting it. But part of that is to help us transition to that next mountaintop when we get caught in just seeing the valley, not seeing the future mountaintop. So when we start to lose ourselves and we lose ourselves by getting more into ourselves. Number two, obedience doesn't always look like success. One of the hardest parts of leadership is sowing without seeing take. Noah. He preached for over a century and not one convert, but he still built the ark, saved his family and all of humanity. Even Jesus didn't reach everyone. His own brother James, didn't believe in him during his ministry, not until the resurrection. So if people aren't responding, don't assume that it's because you are failing or even that they're failing. You might just be planting seeds that someone else is gonna water and God will grow in time. Keep showing up. Keep speaking truth. God is working even when you can't see it. Number three, be real with God, not just resilient for people. Elijah didn't pretend. He brought his exhaustion, his discouragement straight to God, and God met him, not with correction, but with comfort. He sent food, he gave rest. He reminded Elijah that the mission wasn't over, but that Elijah didn't have to carry it alone. Leadership doesn't mean faking strength. It means taking your weakness to the one who sustained you. Number four, we need to listen for the whisper, not just the applause, not just looking for the success. God wasn't in the earthquake or the fire. He came in a whisper. If you are waiting for something dramatic, you might miss his presence in the ordinary. The quiet moment, the early morning stillness, the whispered reminder, I see you. I'm still here. Keep going. But there are some pitfalls. Number one, believing that your feelings are the full picture. Elijah felt alone, but he wasn't. You might feel forgotten. You might feel. Incapable, you might feel like you're doing something wrong, but God sees the bigger story, the one that we can't, and pitfall number two is one, we all fall into chasing results instead of faithfulness. Sometimes the real fruit of your leadership just isn't visible yet, and sometimes it's not yours to harvest. You're just the one who's gonna plant. So if you are in the cave, if you're discouraged, if you're wondering why it feels lonely, want you to take cart, God hasn't left. Your obedience is not in vain, and you're not leading alone. The valley is not your final destination. It is part of your preparation. It's part of all of our lives. We just have to remember, we cannot quit in the cave. Don't define your call by who is clapping for you or who is not, who is supporting you, who isn't where results are and where they aren't. Don't forget, God still speaks most of the time it's in a whisper. So where have you been measuring success by response instead of obedience. And what might God be quietly saying to you in this season? Look, if we're focusing so much on just getting a result and not in doing the right things, we never end up getting to that result. So this week, take 10 minutes in complete stillness. No, no podcast, no radio, uh, no background music. Just you and God, and ask, Lord, where are you working? Even when I don't see it. And then just listen. This is Lead in 10. I'm Chris Moore. Let's keep leading with love and truth. And if you haven't yet, I'd like to encourage you to pick up my book Lead, like The Line, serve Like the Lamb. I've gotten a lot of good feedback from this, uh, not just about the success of a book, but about how it's made people think a little bit differently about how they act, how they react, and what type of person. That God is calling all of us to be. I'll see you in the next episode.