THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Lord, you appointed Elijah as Israel’s spiritual leader. You chose a flawed man. At Mount Carmel, he defeated the prophets of Baal and their idolatry. This significant spiritual victory caused his enemies to threaten his life. He fled nearly 400 miles to Mount Sinai and hid in a cave (1 Kings 19).

You made him confront his fear. “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

What caused him to fall from a prominent spiritual leader to a trembling shell of his former self, hiding in a cave, crying “Woe is me, oh, poor baby.” What happened to his trust in you, Lord God?

You would have none of his excuses and self-pity. “Get up! Go back the way you came,” you ordered. “I have a new assignment for you.”

Why go back the same way? Perhaps you wanted him to examine himself and reflect on how he slid from his great victory to his depressed state.

Did he compromise a little here, overlook a little sin there? Maybe entertain frequent carnality? Sporadic lustful fantasies? Perhaps activities with no eternal value snuffed out his time with you? Here is one of our many battles: he procrastinated about studying the Scriptures, intending to get to that later, but later came and went.

Lord, you told Elijah to return to where he experienced his victory. He never lost his victory. It was always his. He just ran from it. Go back and claim your victory. You told him you had a new assignment and wanted to do something new in him.

Lord, may we never let down our spiritual guard, but cling to the victory over the evil one we have as Christ followers. You didn’t redeem us just to be cave dwellers.

Amen, Jesus.