2009 – Day 162.June 12 – Alone With God

2009 – Day 162.June 12 – Alone With God

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 17: 19 – 22 … 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. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” 21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

My Journal for Today: Wow! Elijah was out there on a limb all by himself on this one. As Swindoll points out today, our Prophet hero had no scriptural precedence to go on. Up to this point in time in recorded Scripture or Hebrew tradition we know of, Elijah had nothing to go on but his faith when the widow handed the lifeless body of her son over to him; and it was exactly that – Elijah’s faith in His God – which he leaned on.

Have you ever been in a place where all you have to go on is your faith? Sometimes, as it points out in Isaiah 55: 8 -9 [linked here] God doesn’t give us a “here’s what you do” manual from the Bible. All he gives to us is His principles from His living, recorded word. And we have to apply those principles – in faith – or just turn the situation over to God completely – in faith. That’s where Elijah was with the lifeless boy in his arms.

So, he took the boy to God; and he pleaded desperately for the boy’s life; and God, hearing the plea, brought the boy back to life. But you may ask, “Why did God do this resurrection; but when my wife died of cancer, God didn’t answer my plea to have her healed?” And that’s the rub of faith, isn’t it? There’s no step-by-step manual on each life as to why God spares one and takes another. If we had such a manual, the concept of “faith” would be null and void. So, all we can do is trust that God loves all of His children; and we have to leave it to God to decide whom He takes and whom He heals.

I know; … that seems so naked and incomplete from our human viewpoint; but that’s why we must bring our pleas to God in faith; and then, as I indicated yesterday, we have to trust in the truth of Romans 8: 28 - that principle that stretches us to the end of our limits at times. Oh, I hope I can be like Elijah in this passage when facing such life/death events; but if God chooses to take my dear one, I pray that I can also have the faith of a brother in Christ who recently lost His wife to cancer, declaring, “I guess God needed her more in heaven that He needed to leave her here with me.”

Now that’s faith!

My Prayer for Today: Oh, Lord, I desire to have Elijah’s faith when I simply can’t know Your will. Amen