Human depravity leads to every disturbing situation we can imagine. Sinful people think sinful thoughts, which, if not restrained, result in sinful actions. This brings misery to others, which ranges from mildly aggravating to dreadfully painful. Chances are good that the majority of people you know are paying some serious consequences for someone else’s unrestrained sinfulness. In James, we read, “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them” (James 4:1-2).

Among the most unsettling situations we can endure are those occasions when someone “has it in for us,” leading that person to intimidate, harass, or even threaten us. Stalking in particular creates an anxiety within us that makes us fearful as we attempt to cope. In this lesson, we’ll briefly meet individuals in Scripture who were victims of stalking, and we’ll look closely at Elijah’s experience with Jezebel to learn how (and how not!) to handle this threat to our well-being.