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!