God is not in the wind, He is in the boat

God Is Not In The Wind He Is In The Boat!

 

1Corinthians 15: 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (NLT)

 

There he sat in a lonely jail cell. Not a jail cell like today mind you, with a bed and cable television. There was no gym to work out his frustrations or access to higher education to pursue a college degree. And while everyone will tell you in prison they are innocent, he actually was. He did not do what he was accused of. In fact, he did the opposite! He took a righteous stand and was imprisoned falsely for it! Where was the justice in that? Days passed into weeks. Weeks into months. Months into blinding years. Somewhere behind this tapestry of misery, God was still writing Joseph's story.

 

We all can find ourselves in Joseph situations. Where we feel like we have had enough. Where we sense that we are nearing the end of our rope and that maybe it is time to give in. Where we can no longer even see where God is in the middle of our valley. But God is still writing your story too beloved. It may not have the plot we envisioned. It may not even have the supporting characters we had hoped for. The ending we may never have even seen coming. But He is the author and finisher:

 

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12: 2 (NKJV)

 

The Prophet Elijah had his own Joseph moment. Elijah had seen the mighty move of God in his life. He had seen God provide supernaturally, raise the dead, and just recently, defeat the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. But then he heard that Jezebel vowed to cut off his head and he ran away. He ran away as fast as possible. The Bible says he actually walked into his wilderness; something we can also do too easily. After God sustains Elijah, He asks him what he is doing and here is where his head was at:

 

Elijah replied, "I have zealously served the L ord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too." 1Kings 19: 10 (NLT)

 

There is a lot of "woe is me" in this assessment. Isn't that how we can get too when we feel like we have had enough? We tell God how zealously we have served Him not because it was the right thing to do but so that we can make a point of saying we should not be going through what we are. It's like we say to God we shouldn't suffer any trial because we have done so much for Him. The second thing we do is we start to compare ourselves to others. That is what Elijah is doing here, no? First we tell God how much we have done for Him and then as a point of comparison we remind Him how horrible everyone else is! And finally, we wrap it up in some self pity.