Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Elijah's Victory

Today I wanted to share with you a story from 1 Kings 18 and 19. I will paraphrase the story. Elijah was instructed by the Lord to present himself to Ahab the king. When Elijah met up with the king, he rejected him calling Elijah a troubler of Israel. Elijah challenged the king to bring 450 of his prophets who were worshiping the Baals. Elijah challenged the 450 prophets to see if they would call upon Baal and see if he would set fire to their sacrifice. The 450 prophets accepted the challenge and set up the altar for the sacrifice and cried out to Baal. Of course nothing happened. Then Elijah set up his altar and God poured down fire on it. Elijah then seized and killed all the false prophets. This was a huge victory. However in chapter 19 Elijah flees out of being scared because of Jezebels threats against his life.

This is where I thought to myself even after this powerful man of God overcame a huge victory he still can doubt and fear?? It says Elijah fled and that was where God spoke to him again and gave him more instruction where he ultimately found his successor Elisha.

Have you ever overcame a huge victory only to get attacked by the enemy the next day? Have you ever had to overcome diversity in the midst of a storm? Be encouraged today and know that even strong men in the Bible like Elijah was discouraged after a huge victory but he still stayed the course and obeyed God.

1 comment:

Always in His Presence said...

How quickly we forget, what God has brought us through. We have to constantly remain ourselves of God's wonderful works, and give him praise even in the midst of the storm. There is a song "Praise you in the Storm" from Casting Crowns. You should listen to it if you haven't heard it yet.
Thank you for the encouraging word Brad.