How Can an Ancient Prophet – Famous for Miracles, Whirlwind and Fire – Help Us Respond to the Pressures of Modern Life?
Both timely and enlightening … brings a refreshing look to Elijah’s life and impact, which is clearly informed by years in health work and ministry.’
Rev Dan Yarnell, National Ecumenical Officer, The Fellowship of Churches of Christ in Great Britian and Ireland
Elijah’s story is one we all know well, full of whirlwind, miracles and fire. But if we look a little closer, we find a man just like us. One who was often in need of healing, encouragement and support. So what lessons can we draw from this man who was so powerfully used by God when we face our own struggles and doubts?
Of all the Old Testament prophets, Elijah might seem to be the least relatable. But taking inspiration from James 5:17, in her new book, Elijah: A Pilgrimage of Healing, author Suzanne Owen skilfully shows how, beneath the prophet’s mantle, there truly was ‘a man just like us’.
An experienced member of the respected Crowhurst Christian Healing Centre in East Sussex, with a full working career in senior nursing and academia behind her, Suzanne is particularly well-placed to both understand Elijah’s struggles and to apply them to her readers’ lives. Exploring how solitude, struggle and surrender shaped Elijah, Suzanne shows how God brought healing and renewed purpose to him in different ways at each stage. Blending these insights with her own faith journey, she makes the lessons of Elijah’s life applicable to anyone facing similar struggles today.
Suzanne comments, ‘Writing this book has been something of a pilgrimage for me! I did not set out to write a book at the beginning of the journey, and was very surprised to discover that it was the natural next step along the way.
‘The choice of Elijah as the topic for on-line quiet days I was hosting in the lock down of 2021 seemed obvious to me. Elijah was battling with a pandemic too – the spread of idol worship – and he was in a type of lock down in the Kerith ravine, so there were parallels to be drawn. After the quiet days, I had opportunity to consider his life in more detail in a series of sermons; increasingly, his battles and struggles looked recognisable as I recalled similar issues in my life. I had not intended to reveal so much of my own life story, yet I realise in the vulnerability, the Lord can work. So, the journey was very revealing and very healing for me too.
‘My prayer for each one who reads the story of Elijah is that they, too, find themselves on a pilgrimage with the Lord our healer, who never misses an opportunity to bring healing in matters both great and small.’
Perfect for both personal devotion and small groups, the regular reflective pauses and thought-provoking questions help deepen our engagement with Elijah’s story and its relevance for our own lives. For this is not just a study of Elijah. Rather it is an invitation to experience God’s restoration, to hear His healing voice on our own pilgrimages, and to learn how we can deal with the myriad pressures of modern life.
‘Use of personal stories, biblical exegesis, imagination, other theologians’ work, and real insight to the trauma and healing processes of the human as we understand them in this century, all merge together.’
Rev Canon Lorraine Apps-Huggins, Lead Chaplain at The Living Well; Former Bishops Advisor on Healing and Wholeness
Elijah by Suzanne Owen (ISBN: 9781912726936) was published by Instant Apostle in September 2025 and is available from bookshops and online retailers. Christian Life, paperback, 272pp, £12.99.