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[expand title=”Devotion Text”]Let’s face it…there are times when obedience will flat wear you out. Ask the teenager determined to remain sexually pure when their hormones feel like the grand finale of a Fourth of July fireworks display. Ask the young adult who is committed to waiting on God’s choice when friends are hooking up with their choices. Ask the husband and wife who vowed “for better, for worse” and are experiencing a long stretch of “worse.” Ask the businessperson whose peers are getting ahead by making promises they can’t keep. Just ask Elijah.
Right before today’s passage, Elijah had one of his greatest victories. In the showdown at Mt. Carmel, God demonstrated his power through Elijah in a miraculous way, and the prophet demolished (literally) four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. After this miraculous victory, Elijah heard that the wicked queen, Jezebel was out to kill him…and he melted. Elijah was standing up for God in Chapter 18 and running for his life in Chapter 19. Obedience can wear you out.
1 Kings 19:3-4
Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
God told Elijah to take a deep breath and stand in his presence. God sent a microburst that shattered rocks around the prophet, then shook the ground with an earthquake, and finally sent a fire. But the Lord was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire. Then came God’s “gentle whisper” that calmed Elijah’s fears and reinvigorated his spirit. Worn out by obedience? Listen, shhhh, for God’s gentle whisper.
Talking Points
- Today ask God to calm your heart.
- Take a deep breath and sit before God in silence. Listen for his gentle whisper.
Father, we are busy, tired, and distracted. Obedience is hard. Help us to calm ourselves in you. We wait for your gentle whisper. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Listen for his gentle whisper throughout the day….
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This Week on The Journey Broadcast:
Ron, I heard this gentle whisper in my ear, “You can do nothing without Me” What a gift this has been to me – so burdened was I with what I must do.
Only He can give me to have this shouted from the mountaintops too.