2009 – Day 163.June 13 – All Your Heart

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 17: 20 – 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: Today I’m taken back to this incredible prayer and act of faith on the part of Elijah, … who had no Scriptural precedence to lean on, as we so often do when we’re faced with impossible odds. All Elijah had was his faith; and with that faith and his own past experience with God, he took the lifeless child to his quiet place and put the boy in God’s hands.

And Swindoll, as do I, puts that question to us if we’re willing and able to do what Elijah did when we have insurmountable odds facing us in our lives. We call ourselves Christians; and we may even be active in church ministry; but do we have a “leave the impossible at God’s altar of faith” type of faith.

Perhaps you feel you are really in a spiritual dilemma; or maybe you’re going through a whopper of a storm in your life. And you look out of your boat, like Jesus’ disciples did on the Sea of Galilee, and you can’t see Jesus. All you see are the winds and the waves about to engulf your life. But faintly you see a figure out on the water and you hear a voice calling you, … “Come to Me,” He says. Now the questions is, “Do I have enough faith to step out of the boat and go to the One I think I hear calling me?” Do I have the faith of Elijah and am I ready to surrender to my Lord in the face of the impossible odds?

Maybe you’ve determined, as Swindoll writes, the following:
>>> I’m here by God’s appointment.
>>> I’m in God’s keeping.
>>> I’m under His training.
>>> He will show me His purposes in His name.
And by God’s appointment, in God’s keeping, under His training, and for His time, … are we ready to trust our God, Who is the same God Elijah prayed to for life?

I’ll let you ponder on that one as I pray …

My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me the faith of Elijah as I pick up today’s crosses and follow You. Amen