Ever felt like this?
Elijah felt like giving up. He’d just had an amazing experience: a showdown with 400 prophets of a false god called Baal. The competition was that both he, and the prophets of Baal would build an alter – with stones, put would on it, but they would not light it. Then they would call on their god to send fire to ignite the sacrifice. The Baal prophets went first. They tried for most of the day, but nothing happened. Then it was Elijah’s turn. He built his altar, put wood on it, the bull for the sacrifice, then …buckets of water! The whole altar – all the would, the kindling, everything was soaking wet. Then he prayed. And God responded: fire came from heaven and consumed the whole sacrifice – the bull, the wood, the stones and the water in the ditch around the alter. Then everyone bowed down and said, ‘the Lord, he is God!’
A great success!
But after a great success, after
we’ve been on a great high, we can come crashing down, and experience an
emotional low.
It might be that you never end up like Elijah. But you
could. OR someone close to you could.
How will you cope?
This part of the Bible tells us something about who you will have to help you.
You may have family, and friends: these are God’s gifts
to you. They could be like the angel that came to help Elijah. An angel sent by
God. Who are the people in your life? Where have they come from? We could say
various things, but a deep answer is that they have come from God.
Just as
you might be part of God’s way of helping another person.
When we get down, and feel like giving up, what can make a difference?
A better way of asking this question is: Who can make a difference?
Who made a difference for Elijah?
It was God.
Not
a hard, aloof, cruel and demanding God, but one who is kind. Gentle. Quiet. (He
didn’t say much to Elijah: he just had the angel say, ‘hey, wake up and eat.’)
This is the God who also cares for you. Who is there for you, no matter
what. God promises in more than one place in the Bible: ‘I will never leave you.
I will never abandon you.’
When we work together, and help each other
overcome obstacles and challenges, we are reflecting God’s character, God’s
nature: Because this is what he does.
How does he help us?
He gives us other people, who
are like angels.
(Behind the scenes, he may well send real angels to help
us.)
What shall we do with the help he sends? Turn our nose up at it? Act tough and self-sufficient? That would be quite stupid. A better response would be to open our eyes, see what God has put in front of us, what he has put in our lives, to help us. See what he has given us, and receive it with thanks.
Best of all, God gives you himself, to nourish you
forever.
In John 6:35 Jesus says:
(35) "I am the bread of life.
Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be
thirsty…
And in verse 51: “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If you eat this bread, you will live forever. The bread that I will give you is
my flesh, which I give so that the world may live."
May you always have Jesus in your life, when you’re up
and when your down, and any time in between.
Amen!
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