2009 – Day 167.June 17 – No Doubt

2009 – Day 167.June 17 – No Doubt

Passage of the Day: 1st Samuel 18 … Passage linked here …

My Journal for Today: This is the great story of Elijah’s coming out party. Three years of drought is a long time to be without water in a land which can be dry and barren anyway. And now, as we read in verse 1 of 1st Kings 18, God was going to show up – BIGTIME! Elijah gets the word of God he had been waiting for; and the Prophet heads to the court of Ahab.

But note that in the intervening three years of the drought and famine, Elijah, even experiencing the same privation of the people, never wavered in his faith. This “man of God” was a true man of faith. And we see why God’s Spirit came upon this man who was to be God’s spokesperson in one of the great biblical confrontations between God’s goodness and man’s false and selfish beliefs.

As we read in this passage, God had set the stage for Elijah to show that the Prophet’s faithfulness was not misplaced. As Swindoll points out, any natural calamity has a tendency to bring mankind back into a seeking posture to find God’s will and His way. When God’s display of power in a hurricane or flood or earthquake or some other “natural” disaster comes upon man, he has a tendency to begin asking the “WHY” questions and seeking after answers. Therefore, what Elijah was about to show the court of Ahab’s soothsayers was being done in the context of God’s people seeking after the truth and most certainly seeking after relief from the drought of three years.

In my life, after years of brokenness and emotional pain, God brought me to a place where I was seeking after spiritual strength, recognizing that I needed some force beyond myself to deal with my inabilities and core weaknesses. And so, God set the table for me to come after Him, seeking after truth and THE WAY out of my pit of despair. And as with Elijah, God used a wondrous display of His moving in my life to break into my consciousness [long story for another time]. And on April 13th, 1983, God demonstrated clearly through a set of circumstances that His way was the only way for me to break free from my past patterns of habitual sin. And that’s what Elijah was all about, demonstrating God’s power to the court of Ahab.

I hope and pray that anyone who reads this has developed the realization, and preferably the deep and abiding faith, that God’s way is the only way. I pray that you have come to surrender to God’s Spirit, Who is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. Because if you haven’t or you don’t, one day, like the court of Ahab, you will bow your knee to the God of the only way in life.

My Prayer for Today: You, Lord, are the only Way, … the only Truth, … and most certainly, … the only Life. Amen