How quickly we can plunge from mountaintop highs to the depths of despair. We return from a retreat, revival, or mission trip overflowing with enthusiasm. Then we’re slapped in the face with the day-to-day reality of people who fail to understand or try to undermine our service to God. We might even ask ourselves, “What are you doing here?”
Elijah was no different. That brave man of God single-handedly faced down 450 prophets of Baal but soon cowered in a cave, ready to die.
When Elijah ran from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, he focused on his feelings rather than God’s facts. He feared what people could do to him rather than remembering the power of the one true God. When he listened to God’s gentle whisper, he once again recognized what God had done, what God was doing, and what God could do through him. His experience serves as a reminder for modern-day believers as well.
Elijah earlier confronted Ahab and Jezebel and their prophets with God’s boldness. He not only prayed for fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice but made such an event seemingly impossible by soaking the entire offering, wood, and ground around it with water. God can also miraculously transform our lives when we offer all we have, saturated with our limitations and the world’s skepticism. God makes the impossible possible.
While Elijah wallowed in depression, God fed him physically, spiritually, and emotionally. How often do we fail to care for ourselves adequately? We lack the physical nourishment, spiritual sustenance, and emotional feedback to face our daily battles. But God stands ready to walk us through our valleys—to take us from discouragement and defeat to reassurance that we are never alone. The battle is already won. God offers daily strength for whatever lies ahead.
Twice, God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” God was prepared to give new direction to Elijah and those who would follow in his footsteps, but Elijah had to listen. When he did, God told him he was not alone, to get out of that cave, and to get back to work. When we feel out of sorts, God allows for adequate recovery. Yet we, too, must eventually get up and move again.
How can you forget your human frailties and focus on God’s facts?
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com.)
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Diana Derringer is author of Beyond Bethlehem and Calvary: 12 Dramas for Christmas, Easter, and More! She writes for several publications and enjoys traveling with her husband and serving as a friendship family to international university students. She offers life lessons from English expressions at dianaderringer.com.