1 Kings 19 -- Just When I Needed It

What a change for Elijah!  Having just watched a huge display of power by God and after ridding the land of 450 prophets of Baal, Elijah let’s an enraged Jezebel’s threats drive him away from his ministry.  God had protected him through drought and those same threats for three years, but now Elijah is exhibiting burnout.  God didn’t tell him to go to Mt. Sinai, but apparently Elijah went there to be alone with God.  God knew he was headed that way, knew what he was feeling, and even sent an angel to twice prepare him for the long trip.

 

I needed God’s timing in all of this, for I’ve been about to the edge of burnout this week.  And I also needed what God showed me in my commentary:

 

1)       Prepare for what may happen after the victories God gives us.  How quickly we can move from the mountaintop of triumph to the valley of testing.

2)      God looks beyond our changing moods and impetuous prayers, and He pities us the way parents pity their discouraged children … how tenderly and patiently God deals with us when we’re in the depths of despair and feel like giving up.

3)      When God’s servants get out of God’s will, they’re liable to do all sorts of foolish things and fail in their strongest points.

4)      God never asks us to be better than anybody else, but only to hear His Word and obey.

5)      The “I’m the only one left” refrain makes it look as though Elijah was indispensable to God’s work when actually no servant of God is indispensable.

6)      “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities … For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:10,14

7)      No matter how much or how often His servants fail Him, God is never at a loss to know what to do.  Our job is to obey His Word and get up and do it.

8)      God was calling Elijah to stop weeping over the past and running away from the present.  It was time for him to start preparing others for the future.  When God is in command, there is always hope.

9)      To glamorize or criticize the past accomplishes little; what’s important is that we do our job in the present and equip others to continue it after we’re gone.

 

Father, thank you for arranging it so that I woke up and didn’t sleep in on this holiday – that I heard You calling me to Your Word when I really needed it.  Forgive me for my entitlement attitude and for the despondency I’ve felt for several days.  Please pick me up, dust me off, and use me again.  I am so thankful that You know my frame and that You remember that I am dust, yet You love me anyway!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford