Elijah
God definitely has my attention. He has placed the life of Elijah before me in three different teaching formats. Bible Study Fellowship, a fall study by Paige Brown online and at our own church teaching the four year old curriculum, Knowing God has something to teach me, I also picked up a book by Charles Swindoll, Elijah, that was on our bookshelf.
I just had to type up these amazing teachings by Swindoll in relation to 1 Kings 17 and the life of Elijah.
If you take away even one nugget from the entry below, it's worth the read. Of the four lessons from Cherith #1 and #2 are learned lessons, where as #2
"Four Lessons From Cherith
First : We must be willing to be set aside as we are to be used. F.B. Meyer called this 'the value of the hidden life.' We must be willing to be set aside so that we can listen for God’s voice in the stillness…away from the cacophony of everyday life, away from our own busyness, our own agendas, our own desires. We need to learn the deep and enduring value of the hidden life….the life where lasting lessons are learned.
Second:God’s direction includes God’s provision. God says, 'Go to the brook. I will provide.'
Third: We have to learn to trust God one day at a time. “The reason so many of us are overwrought, tense, distracted, and anxious is that we’ve never mastered the art of living one day at a time….God never told Elijah what the second step would be until he had taken the first step."
Fourth: A dried-up brook is often a sign of God’s pleasure, not disappointment, in your life.
Ex. Right at the height of his career, when he was becoming known as a great man of God, Abraham was told by the Lord, 'Take Isaac and put him on the altar and kill him.' I would say that qualifies as Abraham’s brook drying up, wouldn’t you? Yet, God was intensely pleased with His servant Abraham.
Elijah went to Cherith as an energetic spokesman for God-a prophet. He emerged from Cherith as a deeper man of God. All this happened because he was 'cut down to size' beside a brook that dried up.
Part of every boot camp experience is the grueling, grinding and sometimes daunting obstacle course. It is neither fun nor easy, but it’s demanding discipline prepares the recruit for whatever situations he or she may face in the future, particularly under enemy fire.
In the spiritual life we must over come at least four major obstacles. Four tough membranes of the flesh: pride, fear, resentment and long-standing habits.
Pride-God removes us from the limelight, from public attention and the ego satisfying applause. Like with Elijah, God persists in hiding us away. As John the Baptist would learn many centuries later, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 We learn submission through this painful process.
Fear: God uses the loss of position, prestige, popularity and privilege to reveal this layer. Then, as He breaks through the barrier, He introduces us to new depths of maturity…we learn to walk by faith.
Resentment; This is prompted by anger as we’re forced to release those rights to which we think we are entitled: the rights to the kind of salary we think we ought to be getting: the rights to the kind of treatment we deserve: the rights to the comforts we should enjoy. Our resentment intensifies. It says, 'I have my rights!'…Resentment usually stems from a lack of forgiveness.
Habit: God uses his obstacle course of faith to break through our layers of long-standing habits-those deep seated attitudes we have formed during busy years of active service, high (often unrealistic) expectations, and success oriented motives that only feed our carnality….its here that we learn humility.
Men and women of God do not manipulate events so that they can be pleased and get what they want. That’s why God crushes pride, removes fear, breaks resentment, and changes long-standing habits until the whole inner being is renovated…until we rest in our God and are ready for His will, not ours, to be done.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox captures the essence of this in her poem
"Gethsemane”
Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years, Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The garden lies. Strive as you may, You cannot miss it in your way.
All paths that have been, or shall be, Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.
All those who journey, soon or late, Must pass within the garden’s gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there, and battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say, ‘Not mine but thine,’ who only pray,
“Let this cup pass,” and cannot see The purpose of Gethsemane.
Even Jesus went through Gethsemane.
God’s boot camp lasts throughout the Christian life…therein we come to realize how alive God is in our lives-how alive and how in charge. He will invade us, reduce us, break us and crush us, so that we will become the people He intends us to be.
No matter how many years we walk with the Lord, we must still, at times, 'pass somewhere through Gethsemane.'
It happens every time He disorients us as He displaces us, every time He pulls out all the props, every time He takes away more of the comforts; every time He removes most of the 'rights' we one enjoyed. And He does all this so that He can mold us into the person that we otherwise never would be."
The Song
"Gethsemane" by 3 year old Claire Ryann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWIx24J00Wc
