Passage: 1 Kings 18, 19
Speaker: Pastor Bob Vetro
(Click here to listen to the sermon.)
Well this was a sermon I really needed. Prayer. The power of prayer. Such a simple thing but we forget to do it. Why?
Prayer is our walkie talkie in the battle. We’re all in the battle right?
Knowing the character of God gives us the confidence we need to pray. If we don’t have the confidence than maybe we should be learning more about God’s character, He is able.
Our motivation for prayer should be to bring honor and glory to God.
Prayer is simple. Elijah’s prayer was less than 30 seconds! The other prophets prayed, cut, danced, and shouted for 6 hrs and it did NOTHING! Here’s Elijah’s prayer and what it accomplished:
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” ~ 1 Kings 18
Why do we try to complicate prayer? If God can send fire with a prayer that lasted less than 30 seconds than what are we ‘going on’ with? The power in prayer is not released by how many words we use or how we pronounce those words. The power of prayer is released by FAITH not by WORDS. “Thank you GOD that my words to You don’t really matter because I don’t ever have the right words anyway and I am so thankful it DOES NOT MATTER! Amen!”
Elijah knew God’s character because he had spent so much time with Him in solitude. That’s why I love this blog, it’s helping me to get to know God better in solitude. It keeps me committed and I am held accountable by all my readers. No one can respond or say what they think until I have already published what God has taught me and what God has put upon my heart to share during my time of solitude. Therefore it’s not tainted by what anyone else is trying to influence me to say or think.
This story used to make me wonder how Elijah had so much faith that God would send fire and than later rain. I used to think what would have happened if God didn’t answer Elijah’s prayers. He likely would have been cut up in tiny little pieces by the same knives that the prophets used to cut themselves with while calling upon their god. He would have made a good sacrifice to their god, yikes! But that’s a real reflection of my own lack of faith in my life and how I have so MUCH more to learn about God’s character. I love what James says about this story:
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. ~ James 5
Just imagine, God created Elijah the same way He created me. This verse almost made me laugh out loud. Seriously! If only I could be half the person Elijah was but the crazy thing is that it’s possible because he was a human being just like me and just like you too.
You know I met a potter today. It was a real God moment. She never works in her studio on Mondays but because it was a holiday today she decided why not! I didn’t even wake up this morning thinking I was going to go to an art studio let alone where there was a potter. It was just on a whim that I thought I would take my friend to Glen Williams hoping the cafe was open but it was not. Anyway we walked around and ended up in a few ‘open’ studios and met this potter. We talked to her and asked her a few questions about the art of working with clay. She said to us that you can work with the clay for so long than you have to let it sit and ‘the potter’ has to wait for the clay to be ready to be worked with again. She said the design of the pot can’t be done all at once but has to be done in stages because the clay gets to mucky to work with. It needs drying time but not too much drying time either.
This is the same with all of us isn’t it? We need drying time and other times we are easy to work with and sometimes it can get a bit mucky.
So are you ready? Or are you too mucky to work with right now?
in the clay,
Chantal Dube
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