What Does It Take?

A little recap of what I got to share at church this weekend:

From 1 Kings 18 and 19

"Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, 'O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. 

O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself."

Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust.  

And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, "The Lord - he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!"

When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including he way he had killed all the prophets of Baal.

And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave." 

"Answer so these people will know that you have brought them back to yourself."  The people saw God's amazing hand come down in one of the most extraordinary moments in all of the Bible.  And they were moved and fell down and cried out that He is God!!

"Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done".   Ahab was there too and saw the awesome display of God answering His prophet.  But he walked away unmoved, unchanged, unimpressed, unconvinced.  

And then Elijah who was discouraged, confused, exhausted, depressed to the point of wanting to die, hears God whisper.

The question for us is: What does it take for us to be moved, changed, impressed and convinced by God?  Are we like the majority of the people and it takes a fireball from heaven, but we get it after that?  Are we like Ahab: it's just never enough, never enough like I thought God should do it, never enough like I wanted God to do it, never enough......  unmoved, unconvinced.....

I want to be like Elijah, even when I don't understand and things have gone terribly wrong, and I feel alone and abandoned and confused, at the end of my rope, and convinced that I don't have the strength for even one more day......I hear Him whisper......  and I am moved, convinced, changed......

The day after I shared at church, my Michael started throwing up blood and we ended up in the ER....and here we still sit.  We think we're finding answers, but this is slow and long.  I've spent many many days and months seeing my boy in pain, not always knowing where it was coming from, praying for answers, wondering how many more days he or I or any of us could do this anymore.

And then God whispers.....or sometimes even rains down provision like fire from heaven.  Sometimes I walk away like Ahab and don't recognize His hand at work.  Other times I hear Him whisper and He moves me.  I have to stay in a place of allowing Him to be God and trust that He knows what needs to be done from His eternal perspective and not from my earthly one.

I pray today, wherever you are and whatever overwhelming thing you face, that you will hear God whisper, and that His whisper will move you and sustain you and fill you with enough faith and courage to take the next step!!