Elijah said to Ahab,"Up on your feet!
Eat and drink–celebrate!
Rain is on the way;
I hear it coming!"
Things happened fast.
The sky grew black
with wind-driven clouds,
and then a huge cloudburst
of rain...And God strengthened Elijah mightily...Elijah ran in front of Ahab’s chariot.
I Kings 18:41, 45-46a (The Message)
Elijah was a prophet who didn’t move through life easily or smoothly. However, he spoke the truth, walked with God and prayed, energetically. In chapter 17 of I Kings, Elijah prays over the dead son of a widow, O God, my God...Why have you killed her son? His prayer confidence got results! Scripture says, God listened to Elijah’s prayer and put breath back into his body...
Now in chapter eighteen, three years of a Elijah predicted drought had settled in and the people of Israel were pretty desperate. They were looking at other "god" possibilities that might help them out. Having already spoken with God, Elijah puts together a "god" competition (read the whole of I Kings 18)–the earth bound god Baal against I AM. After hours of crying out, all the prophets of Baal managed were hoarse voices. Elijah, on the other hand, confidently approaches the altar and prays, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God...reveal to this people that you are God, the true God. That’s all it took! God responded with such intense fire that the altar and everything around it was incinerated. Sheets of rain followed as well as God giving Elijah so much energy he out ran a chariot of horses!
Praying confidently–it’s a thought worth pondering. When we pray is it with the confidence of Elijah or do we make ourselves hoarse with our Baal crying?
Jesus, thank you for listening to me!
But, I want to learn how to talk to you
with "Elijah confidence" believing that
no matter what happens you will give me
the energy to out run the horses.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment