Thirty Days of Thanks -Day 12
Day 12 of Thanksgiving
Today I am thankful that the Lord still loves me and has a plan for my life even when I’m being a spoiled rotten kid….or maybe a brat is the better word. This passage of Scripture is found in 1 Kings. In Chapter 18, Elijah saw great victory over the prophets of Baal when he prayed fire down from heaven. He commanded that the prophets of Baal be seized and slaughtered. In Chapter 19, Jezebel sends a message to Elijah that she will do the same to him. Elijah flees for his life into Beersheba. He sits down under a broom tree and tells the Lord to take his life. He then falls asleep and an angel wakes him, telling him to eat. Get this — God actually sent food for him to strengthen him for his journey. He’s still pouting!! He gets up and heads to Horeb, but it took him 40 days to make that 6 day journey. When he gets there, he hides in a cave. The Lord came to him and asks, “What are you doing here?” Elijah basically says “I did what you told me to and now Jezebel seeks my life.” The Lord tells him to come out of the cave and stand on the mountain in the Presence of the Lord. You would think Elijah would come to his senses, but no, he’s still being a brat. When God asks him a second time, “What are you doing here?”, Elijah responds the exact same way as before even though he just experienced God’s presence again. But haven’t I done the same thing sometimes? In those moments when God has done something great in me, through me, or for me — answering prayers, healing, meeting my needs, blessing others through me — the enemy comes rolling in, trying to turn my thoughts and attention somewhere else. Even though I just experienced God’s presence, I listen to the lies of the enemy. When God asks, “What are you doing here,” I start whining and giving him excuses. God doesn’t allow me to stay in that place though. In the next verses, God simply tells Elijah to go back the way he came and when he got back there, he was to anoint kings and prophets. God had given Elijah a task (an anointing) and he was hiding from it, because of fear instilled in his heart from the enemy. We do the same thing today. God has given us gifts and talents, and he’s given us assignments that he expects us to carry out. Sometimes we act like spoiled brats or maybe we just listening to the lies of the enemy and living in fear. God has to come to us and ask “What are you doing?” He knows we aren’t doing what He called us to do. He wants us to realize it. I’m so glad that when I act in that same manner as Elijah, that the Lord says the same thing to me, “Pick yourself up, quit whining, I’ve got this under control, now go do what I’ve called you to do.”
I Kings 19:15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Haziel king over Aram.”