Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: SHIFT (05/27/21)
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TITLE: Elijah was a human being just like us | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mary Thomas
06/01/21 -
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You can read about this great man of God in I Kings chapters 17-20 in the Bible. A man who had extraordinary encounters with God. A man who raised the son of a widow at Zerepath back to life after he had died. At Mount Carmel Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal proving that the Lord is the one true God.
We see a man who prayed earnestly that it wouldn’t rain for three years and it didn’t until he prayed again for the drought to end and then the rain came.
We read of miracle after miracle taking place and marvel at his faith, and the way God displayed His Glory through him.
And then, Jezebel comes onto the scene, the evil wife of King Ahab. After hearing from her husband all that had taken place and the slaughtering of 450 prophets of Baal, Jezebel sends a messenger to say to Elijah,
‘May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like one of them (1 King 19:2 NIV)
In a moment of time, this mighty man of God became afraid, he made the shift from victory to fear, and he ran for his life – terrified!
We may ask, ‘How could this happen?’
After seeing and experiencing the power of God in ways we can only imagine, he believed Jezebel was going to kill him. Jezebel became very powerful in his eyes. Dare we say larger than God.
However, are we not just the same?
We can know great victories in our lives, answered prayer, a wonderful faith filled time of worship, seeing God working in our life and the lives of others, maybe a miraculous healing.
And then it happens just like Elijah. For us it can be something so small, but we allow a negative thought in, challenging our faith, causing us to focus on the problem in front of us, and we too can shift from being faith filled to faithless and fearful.
‘I have had enough, take my life’ (I Kings 19:4)
These were the words of Elijah after praying that he might die! He lay down under a bush and fell asleep. Defeated!
A human being just like us.
Elijah had allowed fear and discouragement, to cloud his vision, believing that he was the only one left serving the Lord. He felt self-pity, he had just had enough.
Have you experienced this? I know I have. Being full of faith, to suddenly focussing on a problem, instantly being filled with fear and dread. The shift can be tiny and happens so quickly.
You would think that God would have been fed up with Elijah. Angry even. But He wonderfully cares for him, sending an angel with food and water twice, and allowing him to sleep in between.
Later, after Elijah had rested, he had another supernatural encounter with God who spoke to him in a gentle whisper directing him for the next step forward.
And our Gracious God does the same for you and me. When we shift our focus off Him He will get our attention somehow, showering us with His grace and mercy. He encourages us to look past the problem to look to Him again.
I am so thankful for the way the Lord allows us to see the weakness of this great man of God. We tend to by-pass this part of his story, focussing on the great feats he accomplished in his lifetime. But God wants us to see that he was just a human being like us, he experienced the depths of despair, just as we do.
Jezebel’s threat was unsuccessful. And the Lord reassured Elijah he had reserved seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
And so, it is with us. The things we fear the most do not always happen and our thoughts can become so easily distorted that we fail to see truth.
Elijah continued to walk in faith until the end of his life and so can we.
Let’s be encouraged in seeing the weakness of this man of God, a human being just like us.
When we lose focus on God let’s shift our gaze back to Him. Then we can also continue to walk on in faith with Him.
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From victory, to fear and then despair. How often we travel that well-worn path.
I once heard a message that King David was a classic case of bipolar disorder. In one of his Psalms he asks himself 'why are you so downcast oh my soul' and a few verses later 'hope in God.'
Accounts of real people, with real struggles just like us somehow lightens our load!
Another comment suggested a grammar checking tool. I recommend that too, it would have caught some of the mistakes.
Your message was sound. Thank you for the reminder.