2009 – Day 160.June 10 – Confidence in God

2009 – Day 160.June 10 – Confidence in God

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 17: 17 – 19 … 17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.

My Journal for Today: Wow! If you’ve been with me in my devotionals for these past days, we’ve seen Elijah following God in obedience through one pressure cooker after another. Swindoll uses another word picture to describe it today. It’s as if Elijah has been put into a vice and God is making it tighter and tighter.

The Prophet confronted Ahab just as God had asked; and the vice tightened. So, God told him to go to Chrerith and things got tighter with the brook drying up. Then he was led to Zarapeth, where he encountered this widow who was without food; and Elijah showed great faith again helping the woman to see that his God would provide for them. Now, God seems to tighten the vice even tighter as the woman brings here lifeless son to Elijah, blaming him (and by extension, God) for this horror.

BUT (and there’s that wonderful contrast word that my Pastor loves to point out in Scripture); … BUT … Elijah doesn’t wilt under this added pressure. He doesn’t rebuke the woman for her inaccurate point of view. He doesn’t try to reason with the widow, somehow knowing that words are going to be inadequate at this point. No, Elijah simply, and confidently, asks the woman to place her burden, the son, in his arms; and having confidence in God, he goes into action.

If you read on in 1st Kings, you’ll note that Elijah is going to take this horrible burden to His God; but we’ll be looking at that faith-based response in a day or so; but for now, just take heed of how God is leading Elijah and preparing him for God’s plan for Elijah’s life. Have you ever been in a bad situation; and you pray to God for relief and things get even worse? And then you pray for God to lift your burden; and the vice of circumstances gets even tighter. Well, that is where we find Elijah; and it’s where we could find ourselves; or maybe it’s already happened to you in your life. Or maybe you’re right there now.

The question for us, as I’ve raised in the past in the “university of life” which my devotionals have been for me, is “Do we or do we not believe the truth of Romans 8: 28?” Now, I fully expect that you know the truth which that verse expounds, that “… all things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.” Elijah believed that truth. Do we? Because when we do, we will not panic when the vice of life tightens down on us. When we’re face with life or death issues, we will know that God is there with us, just as Elijah handles the horror of this scenario.

That is my prayer for me today; and it’s my prayer for you as well.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, whatever you put me through today, I know that You are right here with me. Amen