For thought and meditation Mon Apr 22 2024

Spiritual Persistence
Blackaby Ministries

Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 1 Kings 18:41

Success can distract you as you seek to follow God’s will. Elijah’s primary assignment was to announce when a drought would begin and end (1 Kings 17:1). God had told him to proclaim to King Ahab that the drought was an act of judgment upon a people who worshiped idols rather than God. In the middle of Elijah’s assignment, a spectacular thing happened. Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called fire down from heaven, putting hundreds of priests of Baal to death. This was one of the most awesome displays of God’s power recorded in Scripture. Elijah could easily have focused strictly on that event. Fire falling from heaven is much more spectacular than a rainstorm!

When something spectacular happens, we can easily be sidetracked. If Elijah lived today, he might have begun a “Calling Down Fire from Heaven” ministry! The dramatic is far more appealing to us than obedience to the mundane. Destroying hundreds of Baal’s prophets would appear to be a climactic victory for any prophet of God. Yet Elijah persisted in his assignment. He announced the coming rain. This had been his primary message, and he delivered it.

If you aren’t careful, you may become so distracted by the successes you experience that you never complete what God originally assigned you to do. Will your success today cause you to disobey tomorrow?

Have a blessed day

Very good message this morning. Great start to the week. Amen.

Amen, a great message today.

Yes, but- keep the context - he then became so terrified of Jezabel that he literally ran through two countries to get away from her and her power. His resultant depression convinced him that he was alone and God was not so powerful. This did not change God's power, but highlights how our physiology and psychology can affect our ministry. Elijah was on a high, his serotonin was working powerfully, but then it was exhausted and he hit the fear and depression resultant from an exhaustion of serotonin. Ahab and Jezabel had an army, and he had just destroyed her priesthood. We know from Scripture that Jezabel ran Ahab, and Elijah knew that too. Thus his fear of her was reality based, she did have an army and she was vindictive.

He had just essentially stood alone against her and now he knew that her revenge was coming. Emotionally he could no longer stand and was feeling very alone. So he ran, and ran. And complained to God that he was the only one in the Kingdom who followed God. God did mention that there were 600 others in the whole Kingdom who He had kept, so Elijah was not far from wrong. He apparently did not know any of them. None of them showed up to help him, either. So his sense of being alone was valid.

Elijah shows us the limitations of one man, even a man of God, when pressed beyond his ability.

Amen.. Thank you for another Great message

God Bless

JDAS