Elijah the Ordinary

Read:  1 Kings 16:29 – 18:46

When you think of Elijah thoughts of superhuman qualities come to mind.  This was the guy who battled the prophets of Baal and won, he raised a dead boy back to life, and he is fed supernaturally by ravens and through miracles of multiplying flour and oil.  He even is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, evading physical death.  This guy isn’t just a prophet, he’s a super-prophet.  Yet James 5:17 tells us that Elijah was an ordinary person just like you and me.  Somewhere in the wilderness, in the secret place, while he was running from the evil King Ahab, Elijah learns the lesson of depending on God through prayer.  In the midst of a nation in spiritual decline which included an apostate king, a backslidden nation and an idolatrous priesthood, Elijah rises to show the nation who God really is.  This was not a personal contest proving Elijah’s worth but rather a contest to prove God is who He says He is and to bring revival to the nation.  So often we do things because we want to be seen as great, we are proud and desire praise yet Elijah wanted the people to know that the Lord is God.  This was his motivation in challenging the prophets of Baal.  Elijah had no hidden agendas; his desire was to see the people turn in wholeheartedness, back to God.  We can’t do mighty things for God with filthy hearts.  We must clean up our hearts so that we can be vessels used to bring God the glory, so that He can increase and we can decrease! Elijah’s prayers turned an entire nation back to God, ordered the moving of the clouds and directed the falling rain.  He could do nothing except by prayer and God was with him mightily because he was mighty in prayer.  Elijah’s results could be secured in the church today if we had more humble and selfless Elijah’s to do the praying. 

PRAYER & MEDITATION

1.       What are your thoughts about James 5:17 – that Elijah was a man just like us?

2.       Ask the Lord to show you the state of your heart – do you struggle with proving your worth, do you desire to do great things for God out of selfish motives.  Ask Him to show you the truth.

3.       Pray that you would grow in cleaning up your heart so that you can be a clean vessel used to bring God the glory! 

Book Resources:  E.M. Bounds, Pray and Praying Men 

 

Food for Thought

Read: Exodus 8-10

It’s interesting how many prayerless people resort to prayer when trouble comes.  That’s what Pharaoh did after the plague of frogs (Ex. 8:8), flies (Ex. 8:28), hail (Ex. 9:28) and locusts (Ex. 10:17).  His requests for prayer show that he knew that the plagues were by the hand of God.  Yet his request for prayer was not pure, it contained wrong motives.  Pharaoh just wanted relief from the troubles of the plagues; he didn’t want to submit to the will of God.  Yet are we so different?  It is important for us to see this deception in our own prayers.  After the plague of hail, we see that Pharaoh appeared to have repented.  He even said, “I have sinned…the Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong” (Ex. 9:27).  This shows how deceitful our hearts can actually be (Jer. 17:9).  We can confess with our lips, making us believe that we have truly repented, but we are deceiving ourselves.  Even though God knew all this about Pharaoh, God still relented and the hail and thunder stopped showing us His mercy.  Pharaoh’s final request for prayer also begins with a confession, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.  Now forgive my sin once more and pray” (Ex. 10:16-17).  After seeking prayer deceitfully four times, Pharaoh’s heart becomes hardened and his chance for real repentance is lost.  So what can we learn from this narrative?  God listens to our prayers, even when they aren’t sincere, and often even answers them.  This is because of His great goodness, love and mercy towards us.  We must examine our hearts and see if there is any wicked way in us, repent, change our ways and follow Him wholeheartedly, before it’s too late for us and our hearts become permanently hardened. 

PRAYER & MEDITATION

1.       Ask the Lord to examine your heart and show you in what areas you have been deceived by your heart.

2.       Pharaoh requested prayer because He wanted relief from the troubles of the plagues; he didn’t want to submit to the will of God.  Ask the Lord to show you if there is any hint of this in your prayer life.

3.       Thank the Lord for the mercy, goodness and love that He has shown towards you!