I King 17: 18

1Kings 17 verse 18 (New International Version)
She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

It is a universal human experience that when things go seriously wrong, among the first things that we do is introspect. We usually blame ourselves and think that our predicament must be as a result of some bad thing that we did in our past (see John 9 verses 1-3). Just like the lady in this story, we believe that God must be angry with us and must be punishing us.

How wrong we are! While it is true that we do suffer hard consequences for our sins, 9 out of 10 times we are wrong about the cause of the bad times that we are going through. Be encouraged today. God is not angry with you. Move close to him and ask for his help. You will be pleasantly surprised at what he will do for you.

Lessons from Elijah 1

For the next couple of days I will be sharing thoughts from the book of I Kings 17: 17-24. The background to the story is that a famine had broken out in the land of Israel (actually instigated by the prophet Elijah) as a punishment from God for national apostasy. Meanwhile God is sequestering Elijah at this time in the home of a woman who had a little son, who was now sick.

I Kings 17 verse 17
Several days later, the son of the woman who owned the house got sick, and he kept getting worse, until finally he died.

A few thoughts from this verse:

1. We tend to allow illnesses, unwholesome relationships, worries and other problems to fester to the point of irretrievable damage before we seek help. It appears to be the way of us human beings, but it should not necessarily be our way.
   
2. Elijah was present in the house all this while and while the woman could have sought the prophet's help, neither did the prophet act proactively to save the boy. It is our experience, backed by scripture, that many times God allows us to stew in our own soup without seeming to help us, even though he could. We will try to find out why this is so in subsequent blogs.
3. I'm attracted to the words "several days later". There was a period of relative calm in this household before hell broke loose. Apparently they had "several days" of the peace before the storm. The lesson that I learn from this is that we ought to use the good times in our lives to prepare for the bad times. Since it is inevitable that challenges and crises will come to our lives, we need to know that God gives us peaceful days to allow us to fortify ourselves for the day of evil (Ephesians 6:13).

What constructive thing are you doing today to prepare for the dark days? I suggest that you strengthen your relationship with God. He is the Ultimate Anchor for your life's ship in the times of storm.
Be blessed today!

Blogging daily.......er.. or at least more frequently

I have resolved to post a new blog daily, or at least more frequently. I intend to share meditations from a verse a day. My new A-verse-a-day- project will ensure that I communicate with you out there, giving you what I believe is a fresh thought from God everyday. So, here goes....

I Kings 18:31 (New King James Version)
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”

Elijah had just had some false prophets perform an elaborate song and dance purporting to call down fire from heaven by the help of their god Baal. Of course, nothing happened. Now Elijah was attempting to call down fire from heaven upon a sacrifice that he was preparing. The goal: the God that sends down fire is the real God.

The whole exercise would have been unnecessary, except that the nation of Israel at this time had gone completely apostate and had begun to serve Baal. In the end, God did send down fire from heaven and the faith of His people was restored.

My thoughts on the verse above are these: on the path to rediscover a lost faith, a lost goal or a forgotten passion, we need to:

1. Rebuild broken habits, like prayer, Bible study and solitude.
2. Recognize that our habits have far-reaching influence, just as each of the twelve stones stood for a whole tribe of people. They were not just empty rituals; they affected peoples lives. Each day that we stand before God in prayer, we probably are representing millions of people.
3. Remember the original Word that we heard from God. The stone altar that Elijah was building reminded him of the original word of God to the head of the clan (Jacob) that said, "Israel shall be your name", or like a version that I love puts it, "Israel is thy name." No 'ifs', no 'buts'. Your identity is sealed in heaven - you are a Prince with God.

It helps in times of doubt, fear, insecurity or dry spiritual seasons, to remember God's original word to you. And believe it again.
Be blessed today.