2009 – Day 175.June 25 – Come Out

2009 – Day 175.June 25 – Come Out

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 19: 1 – 18 … Linked for your study …

My Journal for Today: Well, if you’ve been coming along with me in this downer period of Elijah’s life, we’ve seen how our Prophet-hero allowed exhaustion to take him into a cave of depression, despair, and deranged vision. However, today we see how God works in such times; and I’ve experienced this kind of discouragement as well as God’s antidote. So, I know first hand that what we read in this passage is truly how God works.

First, if God has a plan for your life, he will give you time and resources to prepare or re-repair yourself for that task. As my mentor used to say, over and over, to me, “God’s calling is His enablement.” And here we see God giving Elijah 40 days of R & R in the cave to get his mind focused back on God’s will and His way. Then, when Elijah’s mind was clear enough to hear the truth, God called our Prophet out of the cave and gave him a little bit of in-service training in how our God communicates.

Elijah came out to the mountain where God’s presence surrounded him; and he sent the world’s noisiness to show Elijah what he [we] should ignore. And the winds came, … then the earth moved; … and then the fires raged; but God was not in those messages. And that reminds me of all the hustle and bustle of our world where we are deluged by all the blowing, inconsequential information of this age; and we are shaken by the tyranny of the urgent trying to rattle and distract us from God’s will; and we are burned by a world that hates God. But God is not in any of that. No, Elijah learned that he needed to listen for God’s still, small voice; and so do we.

I hope you have a quiet place each day where you can delve into God’s word; and you can, in prayer, listen for God’s still, small voice. God will not usually be in all the news you see/hear on CNN. Seldom will God be trying to influence you with the ground shaking events which occur in our lives; and when the world burns us with its evil ways or the oppression of Satan’s demons, God will not be speaking in all those lies. No, my dear one, God usually shows up and is heard in the quiet times when we are specifically seeking to go deep to know Him. He’s there in the still, small voice as you listen for Him in prayer; and he’s heard through His quiet, but powerful, voice which we glean from His word.

Like Swindoll points out in his devotional today, we need to avoid the fatigue and exhaustion which can cloud our ability and desire to seek our Lord’s will and follow His way; and we need to go to a place in our lives where God can more readily speak to our minds/hearts and be heard.

Do you have such a place in your life, my friend? Or are you letting the world wear you out with its demands and the oppression of worldly information, most of which will never enlighten us. We need to be alone with God where we can hear His still, small voice EVERY DAY. We need to develop a discipline of solitude and quietness where we go to listen to God’s Spirit speaking into our lives, convicting and directing us toward God’s will and His way from His word. Find that place, dear one, and hear God speak to your heart. Because, if you seek the quiet voice of the Lord with determination and diligence, He will reveal Himself to you.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help all who read here to tune their spirits to Your still small voice which I am hearing here this morning. Amen