When we pray~We get help~He gets the glory
So Elijah wasn’t really perfect. Elijah had his weak moments too. You’d think that after He saw God work in such a huge way that he would be on a spiritual HIGH (30 second prayer = fire raining down). But in his prayer to God in 1 Kings 19 he wants to die. His prayer was ‘ordinary’ as Pastor Bob put it, because he was just an ordinary man. We’ve likely all had a moment like this in our lives when we feel desperate and afraid or at rock bottom.
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. ~1 Kings 19
I love the verses that follow when the Lord speaks to him:
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”~ 1 Kings 19
If we are in tune with God’s voice He can speak to us and through us than He can use us. Imagine hearing the Lord God as clearly as Elijah did, especially when you find yourself in a time of crisis. I believe we can all hear God’s voice we just have to be willing to take the time to listen. If Elijah didn’t want to he didn’t have to go up to the mountain to hear the Lord God but he did. He also didn’t have to go out into the wilderness in the first place. He didn’t have to choose to depend on God sending the ravens to him with his food. He didn’t have to go to the windows house when the stream dried up but if he had not done any 1 of these things the story would have ended quickly with him dying. Elijah prayed, God spoke and Elijah listened than God got all the glory.
I remember hearing God’s voice telling me something one day. As I was wrapping a present for a friend one day in our spare bedroom I stopped to look at a photo of my daughter for a second. God clearly spoke to me in a non-audible voice and said, “You will not have children but children will have you.” Our daughter is adopted and she was 1 at the time. She is still our only child. I am ok with that but hearing God tell me that gave me closure/healing that no doctors have even been able to give my husband and I. I could finally move forward! It gave me such a peace I am so thankful for that moment, to God be the glory. I was no longer consumed about getting pregnant. Interesting thing though is that so many other people are still dwelling on that fact that God can/will do a miracle in me. My response to them is that God did do a miracle in us, her name is Lily and she’s all we need until God tells us otherwise.
Elijah’s story is a great story about faith and prayer but the part that amazes me about the story is that the widow received him into her house.
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. ~ 1 Kings 17
I’m not sure about you but if I were her, I would not have invited a man I didn’t know in my house let alone be willing to take the risk of sharing my last few ingredients to make him anything before starving to death. But she did as Elijah told her God would promise her, JUST LIKE THAT. How amazing? She had faith too. What would have happened if she didn’t let Elijah in? The story would have ended there and Elijah would have died. This story could have had so many different endings if at any moment faith in God was lost.
So how do we apply this lesson about prayer to ourselves? I will share how it applies to me through a prayer that I have been praying a lot. Don’t worry it will take you less than 10 seconds to read my prayer 🙂
“God release the power of my addictions and the hurts that I am suffering so that I can be used by You as Your servant to bring You honor and glory. Amen”
Now let’s see what God can do with those 32 words.
in the clay,
Chantal Dube