Feeling Downcast?

"When at last a long-cherished desire is fulfilled, when God has been glorified greatly by out means and a great triumph achieved, then we are apt to faint...The Lord seldom exposes His warriors to the perils of exultation over victory. he knows that few of them can endure such a test and therefore dashes their cup with bitterness.

See Elijah after the fire has fallen from heaven, after Baal's priests have been slaughtered and the rain has deluged the barren land! For him no notes of self-complacent music, no strutting like a conqueror in robes of triumph. He flees from Jezebel, and feeling the revulsion of his intense excitement, he prays that he may die...

While the trial lasts, the strength is equal to the emergency. But when it is over, natural weakness claims the right to show itself.

Secretly sustained, Jacob can wrestle all night, but he must limp in the morning when the contest is over, lest he boast himself beyond measure.

Paul may be caught up to the third heaven and hear unspeakable things, but a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, must be the inevitable sequel.

Man cannot bear unalloyed happiness. Even good men are not yet fit to have 'their brows with laurel and with myrtle bound' without enduring secret humiliations to keep them in their proper places."

Charles Spurgeon