You Are Not Alone

The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." 1 Kings 19: 7-10

Today's Reading: 1 Kings 19-20; Luke 23: 1-25

Ok… time for a recap.

In the previous reading Elijah was the must uber gangsta prophet we have seen so far.

Well… ok Moses was pretty incredible… but that’s neither here nor there.

So, the scenario is that Queen Jezebel was exterminating all of Israel’s prophets. Elijah magically escaped, but came back for a spiritual showdown. He challenged her prophets to a sacrificial duel. They each made an altar and slaughtered a bull on it. The question was which god would spontaneously burn the sacrifice without any involvement from the prophets.

So the prophets of Baal called out to him and all that jazz and nothing happened. Elijah called to God and whoosh! The whole altar went up inflames. Then Elijah went and killed all of Jezebel’s prophets.

She was not too pleased…

So she put a hit out on him and he had to skip town. Dude was so scared and tired and burned out that he wanted to quit! And then we come the scripture above. Elijah is hiding in a cave and God comes and comforts him and directs Elijah to go anoint his successor: Elisha.

A couple things here.

One day Elijah was this big champion for God, then the next day he is fleeing for his life with hardly any faith left. Have you ever been in that place? Have you ever lost sight of the great accomplishments you had in the past when faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle?

I know I have.

Sometimes when our faith starts to waiver we have to look back at what we have already made it through. Sure the next challenge may seem to dwarf those successes in comparison, but, there is no challenge along your path that you cannot overcome.

After all, it is YOUR path. Don’t forget that.

The other lesson I see here is in God providing help in the form of Elisha. When we are faced with these huge challenges we gotta remember that we have the people that we have in our lives for a reason. Maybe there is a friend or relative or acquaintance that is uniquely suited to help you in your time of need.

Maybe you are that person for someone you know.

So when the going gets tough remember that there is nothing that you cannot overcome. You have all the resources that you need to emerge victorious.

You are not alone.

(I was gonna add the You Are Not Alone video from Michael Jackson but it’s entirely too weird. If it’s in your head now like it’s in mine click here. Enjoy).