April 15, 2012
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, 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." Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. -- 1Kings 19: 3-5 (NIV)
Elijah was a man of God. A chosen instrument of the Lord to spread the truth about God and how His people were falling away. But no matter how great a servant of God we may be, our flesh is always our flesh. In the Book of 1Kings we see a tremendous story about how Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah was a first hand witness to the majesty and power of God as His consuming fire rained down from heaven and then God gave every one of those false prophets into the hands of Elijah! Yet immediately after this great victory Elijah heard that the evil Queen Jezebel wanted his head and he forgot all about the victory and ran for his life. Similarly, we too will find ourselves in moments of great crisis. Moments where we too can forget all the great victories the Lord has already given us. Moments when we will panic and flee and start to wonder of any of this is worth it anymore. Within these few verses are some essential truths for us to remember when we face those days.
First of all, not every desert experience is from God. The verses above clearly indicate that Elijah chose to walk into the desert he found himself in. we too can often bemoan the desert experiences in our lives and wonder how we got there. We need to first retrace our steps and determine if indeed we walked willingly into it. Now, God will use every experience for His glory and our good but we have a tendency in the church to over-spiritualize things or under-spiritualize them. Not everything that happens in our life is a result of God or Satan. Sometimes we exercise our free will and choose to do something within our own flesh. The world teaches a victim mentality. Later in this chapter you even see that mentality play out in Elijah as he complains that he is the only person who is faithful to the Lord and look at all the bad things that are happening to him because of it! Yes, they had pity-parties back then too!
Secondly, do not separate yourself from others during times of great pressure. The verses above indicate that Elijah left his servant and walked into the wilderness alone. That is how the devil wants us; alone. He can do his greatest damage when we are by ourselves. Elijah basically gets so despondent here he wants to die. Those thoughts are bred from fear and from being alone. His own words indicate that he feels alone. We were not meant to be alone. Unfortunately in the church we hide behind masks because Christians are so good at burying the wounded. The result is we all end up afraid of being real with the very people God puts in our lives to support our walk.
Lastly, do not sit down in the desert beloved. You do not seek rest in the wilderness. God would eventually wake Elijah up, feed him and then ask him one question -- what are you doing here? We usually spend so much time trying to escape the desert we never stop to ask why we are there. What does God want us to learn? What impurities need to be weeded out of our lives? Either way, sitting down in the desert is not the way out. It is in the desert that we need to be even more vigilant in our walk and be working diligently to get back into the place where God wants us to be and can use us. There will be plenty of time for rest later. There will be plenty of time for sitting down later. For right now, figure out why you are there and work with God to get back to where He wants you to be. But we can become so petulant, like the children we are before God. We can get upset with God. We can question our "faith" when the reality is that we are questioning our lot. If your faith was based upon your desired outcome of where you wanted to be then that was never faith anyway.
Whatever wilderness you find yourself in; make sure
you determine if you walk in yourself. Make sure you avoid the temptation to go
it alone. Figure out what God wants you to learn and avoid the desire to rest
in it. Get up and get moving.
Rev. Anthony
