This
weekend Bill White taught from I Kings 19:15-21 on the need to be obedient to God
in our present lives.
Up
to this point, Elijah has been a part of a remarkable story written by the one
true Author. He has carried the message
of God to the people, faced enemies, and survived great peril all by the grace
of God. Yet, now Elijah is atop Mount
Sinai facing another great enemy, Discouragement.
Verse
15 opens with clear instruction for Elijah and a promise to provide three men
to judge the sins of the nation. God instructs
Elijah to go back to Damascus, anoint Hazael as king of Aram, anoint Nimshi as
king of Israel, and finally to anoint a man named Elisha to replace Elijah as
God’s prophet.
Elijah
leaves Mount Sinai, but instead of fully obeying the commands of the Lord, he
goes immediately to Elisha as he is working in the field with his oxen and
throws his mantle over Elisha’s shoulders. Elijah immediately turns and flees,
and Elisha must chase Elijah to even speak with him. Elisha’s request of time to kiss his parents
goodbye is met with a bitter word from Elijah.
Instead, Elisha goes back to his oxen, slaughters and cooks them, and
feeds them to the townspeople. It is
then that Elisha leaves his life behind to follow Elijah.
Elijah’s
behavior in these paragraphs and the gravity of the situation powerfully illustrate
the inevitability of struggle in a broken world. Even Elijah, a man who follows
God and “finishes well”, still faces a season of great discouragement. Yet, discouragement does not signify a lack
of faith. It is a trial that we must
face and push through; it is a time that requires repentance.
We
all look for a calling in this life, often believing it will magically give our
daily routine great meaning. Yet, a calling,
simply stated, is a responsibility put on you by God. In truth, it doesn’t always feel spiritual,
and it will never be easy. Though we may
often hunger to “do something” with our day to day life and anxiously await a
sign from God for our “true calling”, God created us to work and be busy. We must honor Him in doing what He has put in
front of us now in order to be tasked with something greater in the
future. Elisha was a prophet of God, but
even he was busy working elsewhere when the Lord called him.
To
be sure of what God is calling us to do individually, we must first go to
Scripture. If God does place a calling
on your heart, it will be because you are currently obeying what He has already
told you to do, though we will not be able to do it perfectly. Even Paul, at
the end of his ministry calls himself the chief of sinners. We must create a lifestyle of pursing His
will above our own, repenting when we do not, and moving forward.
There
are several ways through which God calls us.
1. His people. Sometimes through another individual, by most
often in the midst of community, we are given insight into our spiritual gifts
and the greatest way to use them for the Kingdom.
2. Providence. God can create a situation to make it obvious
to us that we are on the hook for something.
3. Direct Revelation. This is the rarest of mediums in which God “pulls
back the curtain of space and time and does something crazy”.
4. A burden that grows that
you cannot escape. Sometimes God
communicates with us by placing something on our hearts that we cannot avoid.
To
embrace the responsibility God puts on your shoulders you will have to
sacrifice something. In I Kings 19
Elisha had to choose to give up his life, his wealth, and his livelihood to
follow a greatly discouraged Elijah. As
Bill stated this weekend, the fact of the matter is that “you just don’t know
what God might do…He’s crazy by our standards.
He crushed His one and only Son.”
If
you want to follow Jesus you will have to use the gifts and opportunities that
God has given you to serve others. You
are not promised comfort or wealth or recognition in this. But the good news is that Jesus has already
done all of this. For you.
Questions:
1. At the end of your life,
will you lay wishing you had been more selfish?
Or will you wish you had given more?
2. How are we being
disobedient to God with what he has already placed in front of us?
3. What calling or
responsibility has God entrusted to you?
What is he asking you to sacrifice?
-Katie Gural