Elijah

I love reading passages in Scripture that are familiar to my heart because they have clearly spoken to me at one time or another in my ten years of faith. I finished up reading one book and was unsure where to dive into next. Stories of the prophet Elijah popped into my head and I flipped to 1 Kings. It was so refreshing to read the stories of his faith in the desert, how the Lord provided an unceasing supply of flour and oil for the widow and her family until the rains came, how God engulfed the bull Elijah cut and drenched in water with fierce flames to demonstrate His power over Baal, the unlikely speeds at which Elijah ran and passed the chariots proving his legs could have only been carried by the Holy Spirit, and, my favorite, how Elijah listened for the Lord's voice in the forceful wind, the monstrous earthquake, and the overwhelming fires, but the Lord spoke to him in a gentle whisper. Ahh. Elijah was lonely..."the only one left"...and everyone was bloodthirsty to take his life, but still the Lord gently whispered into his ear as he patiently waited on God. Then God instructed him to anoint Elisha to take over his ministry.


The last cool part that I enjoy is that my study Bible does this section on whether Elijah was fearful or not. It says, "Even individuals of great courage and conviction have moments when they feel discouraged. (Elijah) was not indestructible. He had human weaknesses. Elijah was a man just like us (James 5:17). Instead, it seems, he felt exhausted...he retreated. It may be that Elijah was facing a personal crisis of faith, identity, and vision. Sometimes the thought of another battle after just finishing one is overwhelming."

I feel like I fully identify. No matter how much strength I have within me, sometimes I am just overwhelmed, exhausted, fully tapped of all energy, and I need to collapse to recover whether emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, etc. And the awesome thing is that Elijah was this incredible prophet, leader of and voice to the people; yet he was a real person too. He needed to rest and sometimes he fell apart too. That's a breath of fresh air. And so I say, please, Lord, no more battles for now. I retreat...