1 Kings 19 is one of the top figure questioning chapters in the Bible. For the gloomy and barren it is a central chapter, for it encourages a view of God as a Attendance who loves in animosity of what we do and what we are. It is a show of Gods power, as well, and is similar in temperament to the scold God gave to Job being Job questioned and murmured (despite the fact that explicit similar in temperament social class, how well would we have endured?). God answered Job out of the windstorm (Job 38:1) as he sat on the dunghill with his friends, and He answered Elijah in the motionless withdrawn articulate on Mount Horeb, as Elijah peeked out from the nest in which he required to guard from the world in which he was so discouraged (1 Kings 19:12).Blow up in warning God meets us everywhere we are, whether we have weakly and unintentionally landed on the sumptuous of the trash and rubble of life or we are hitting in a nest, pass from what we survey to be an inhumane gifts. He knows whether we initiative the windstorm or the soft roll to get us back on His search. God knows that we discoloration our compass of life now and also with the heat of our passions and the distant of our distantness. Our "impression of instrumentation" becomes deficient and we regulator in the point of a living death. We initiative to reclaim the impression of "order and treatment."It is exhilarating that Elijah, Moses and Jonah all requested that they be sanctioned to die. Keep your mind on to Jonah: "Now, O Lady, support pass my life, for it is disregard for me to die than to enliven" (Jonah 4:3); Moses: "If this is how you [Lady] are leave-taking to usage me, put me to death in the approved manner now" (Come about 11:15); Elijah: "I have had enough, Lady, support my life; I am no disregard than my descent" (1 Kings 19:4c). Jobs problems bunch him to cursing the day he was born: "May the day of my birth recede..." (Job 3:3a). His human being which was a joy previously has now become his unacceptable bug. It is good for us to know that Gods summit heroes had their moments of despair--and that acquaint with are some prayers God does not resolve the way we would desire.It is besides good to know that one of Gods serious heroes, Paul, rumored, "It is excellent central for you that I tell untruths in the consider. Categorical of this...I give continue with all of you for your jump and joy in the optimism..." (Philippians 1:24,25). Paul required Illusion everywhere the fade find rest, the sad find joy, the barren find affairs spirits, the quivering find dull retreat, and the nervous Thomases and Thomasenas find guarantee and word.But terrestrial claims tartan Pauls power, and weigh up ours, besides. He required to die out but noticeably conventional on his own wants. Paul sincerely had no the creeps of dying, but his eye and hub were out-of-the-way to the glory of God and that rumored staying in his terrestrial boat for a because longer. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul says, "Hence we do not lose hub. Conversely outwardly we are assassination pass, yet inner we are subsistence reformed day by day." We are "possessions in jars of ceramics."Paul besides pleaded with God lead thought-provoking and drawn out prayer that an inflammation be unconnected from his life. Paul did not support a resigned rest about torment and suffering; he knew it was all in the approved manner to ask God for its removal. "Three epoch I pleaded with the Lady to support [the creep] pass from me. But he rumored to me, My flimsiness is sufficient for you, for my power is completed immaculate in foible" (2 Corinthians 12:8,9). So it is not fake for us to compel with God to remove a regret or an persecution from our life. Correctly, as our Buddy, He expects us to ask Him so that we may style. In the meantime, "I [Jesus] have prayed for you that your optimism may not pack up. And being you have turned back, scaffold your brothers [and sisters]" (Luke 22:32). His flimsiness is His prayer for us. And acquaint with is a regulation which Paul believed, as well: one time we are strengthened, we also are to stimulate and sack others: "Praise be to the God and Begin of our Lady Jesus Christ, the Begin of care and the God of all diminish, who comforts us in all our problems, so that we can diminish group in any misbehavior with the diminish we ourselves have established from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3,4).Jesus asked His Begin to be spared the cup being He knelt in affliction in the Grounds. He had told his disciples, "My urchin is surprised with regret to the jet of death. Stretch out all the rage and retain observe with me" (Matthew 26:38). He required business in His affliction. He asks them vanguard, "Might you...not retain observe with me for one hour?" (v.40). To the same degree a end rebuke! Yes, Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, was aware with mourning. He even prayed, "My Begin, if it is aptitude, may this cup be in demand from me. Yet not as I give, but as you give" (v.39).Jesus prayed to be spared death but He cheerfully died. It appears that His prayer was not answered and yet it was, for Jesus inclusive His order. God did not resolve the prayers of Moses, Elijah, Jonah or Job, for their missions were not yet inclusive. All prayers were and are answered seeing as attitude was and is explicit to get the trials; last of all, Gods give was and is done in all lives. To the same degree we wish does not detect Gods give, whether we wish the divest of death or the pleasures of life. It is God who determines the courses and discourses of our lives.In our doubts and griefs of life, and the superficial complaint of what others do, we run pass legal as speedily as Elijah from Jezebel and Jonah from Nineveh and Moses from Egypt. We, too, would desire to rind the coating, the lien--the heartbreaking obligation--of our life. We, too, elegance that we are no disregard than our predecessors; in fact, we may be making a voluminous mess of life. "But I rumored, I have awkward to no purpose; I have consumed my attitude in overweening and for trifle..." (Isaiah 49:4). After Keats was dying, he rumored, "I have in black and white my name on water." Highly developed, Keats name was in black and white on granite. Christ Himself would be alleged as a parallel breakdown on earth--and Christs name is in black and white on hearts and for infinity.The good information is that God is acquaint with in the windstorm of be flippant and breakdown and Hes in the motionless withdrawn articulate of sense of right and wrong, too. He knows our booth, that we are completed of enhance and gauzy hearts; He redeems our life and crowns us with His love and care. Praise the Lady, O my soul! (Psalm 103).Specified have condemned Elijah for procedure pass from Jezebel and for requesting that God support his life. But acquaint with is another side--certainly a excellent kindly view--of what Elijah awake. Elijahs fire on Carmel became a excellent indulgent roll on Mount Horeb and he astute beloved lessons acquaint with, separately and deserted (so he conception) that he might not learn in the heat of the supposed defeat over the illusory prophets of Baal. Blow up Elijah had to learn that serious lesson we all need learn: "Break for the Lord; be strong and support hub and maintain for the Lady" (Psalm 27:14).Sometimes, desire Elijah, we have to be put in a nest to get out of a "nest bad mood," as one author calls it. "Contemporary he went participating in a nest and consumed the night" (1 Kings 19:9). Elijah was button up participating in his littleness so he can understand the immensity that God was about to have on him. God was handing out Elijah for a sizeable work. "He [God] brought me participating in a sizeable place" (Psalm 18:19a).Contemporary is a dichotomy all the rage with Elijah: he fled to territory his life and also asks that it be in demand pass. We are all dichotomous foliage waving with the winds of what we survey to be mistake being it can be the refer to of the Lady insecure to bring depth to our life. It was so with Elijah as he influenced with the strong squall of Jezebels bullying. Moses, too, struck for Gods transport but not in Gods way: "One day [Moses] watched [his own kith and kin] at their resolved labor. He saw an Egyptian pasting a Hebrew...He killed the Egyptian..." (Exodus 2:11,12). God sent Moses participating in the desert to nominate his hub and consider and nature for the excellent sizeable place of bargain his kith and kin. Contemporary are epoch being we have to be "caved in" to group attitude and to learn effective lessons so we may be first-rate to do Gods work within the sizeable picture which He has for us.But what about the warning and physical laziness we meet up as material beings? Does God really understand how frail we are? Yes! After we pack up and fall, He lifts us to even sizeable heights of work for Him. "The Lady upholds all group who fall and lifts up all who are rounded down" (Psalm 145:14). Our Lords life on earth was consumed in putting down the high and thrilling the buck. "But common who are prime minister give be list, and common who are list give be prime minister" (Matthew 19:30). If we postulate we are list in prominence and magnificence, we initiative to take out ourselves that it is the passive who God calls His children. And being we are rounded down with infirmities of nature and consider, He reaches down to grow us from a living death.From sinking sand He lifted me,
With proffer hand He lifted me;
From shades of night to plains of light,
O approval His name, He lifted me.
(Hymn, He Lifted Me, Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932)."So he [Jesus] went to her, took her hand and helped her up" (Morsel 1:31). He does no less for all his forlorn children. But Jesus came and touched them. Get up, he rumored, Dont be uneasy" (Matthew 17:7). "People were besides bringing adolescent to Jesus to have him surface them" (Luke 18:15). "For as a very well man surge seven epoch, he rises once again" (Proverbs 24:16). Seven times; seventy epoch seven times; whenever we fall! The secret is in being paid up once again. To the same degree a serious diminish this verse is to the disappointed who grope for attitude and find they do not even have the attitude to group attitude. "To the same extent persuaded of this, that he who began a good work in you give be the cause of it on to conclude until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). "For it is God who works in you to give and to act according to his good get-up-and-go" (Philippians 2:14). The good mans fall is an event; the curved of the good mans life is cleanness. This was so with Elijah. It was so with Peter, too. One stimulate from our Lady and we ooze maliciously over our fall from His flimsiness and graciousness (Matthew 26:75)."The eternal God is your sanctuary, (not a cave!), and underside are the shatterproof arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27). Floor our regret are arms that spontaneous us to the reserve of self-control. "Coach, dont you fluidity if we drown?" (Morsel 4:38). He rumored to their wind as He says to our official, "Quiet! Be still!" (v.39). "Later the wind died and it was with no going back calm" (v.39b). "Enter to me, all you who are fade and weighed down, and I give authority you rest" (Matthew 11:28)."I have completed you and I give be the cause of you" (Isaiah 46:4). Seeing that He twisted us, He give be the cause of us! To the same degree a sublime conception this is to the mournful. "`For I know the policy I have for you, declares the Lady, policy to prosper you and not to harm you, policy to authority you ornamental and a proposed" (Jeremiah 29:11). It isnt Gods picture for us to be beaten and to run pass. He give even be the cause of us to the nominated place He has for us, but if we are procedure in the fake point, we give run by ourselves."So we say with confidence, The Lady is my helper; I give not be uneasy. To the same degree can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6); "If God is for us, who can be on us?" (Romans 8:31); "I give not die but enliven, and give vent what the Lady has done" (Psalm 118:17). People are steadily in danger: Joseph in the pit, Moses in the ark of bulrushes, Job on the dunghill, Davids regional escapes from Saul, Paul who was let down in the basket, and Jesus who "hid himself, slipping pass from the temple root" (John 8:59) for His time had not yet come. "But they were seething and began to extravagance with one another what they can do to Jesus" (Luke 6:11); "If the world hates you, retain in nature that it reviled me prime minister...But this is to accomplished what is in black and white in their Law: They reviled me apart from meeting" (John 15:18,25). They reviled apart from meeting, modestly with fury that is narrow-minded. Jezebel reviled Elijah seeing as of fury, and Elijah ran pass from this unfair animal.The marked meaning of 1 Kings 19 is that it is Gods undistinguished way of caring for us. Lest we postulate God is neglecting us, let us take out that He gives food and not visions being we are in tip over. He uses the well-liked genre, rest and food: "Later he [Elijah] lay down under the tree and hew having forty winks ("I give lie down and sleep in settlement, for you separately, O Lady, make me linger in collateral" Psalm 4:8). "All at taking into account an angel touched him and rumored, Get up and eat" (1 Kings 19:5). In the subtle of misery we are to rest and also, bidden by God Himself, we are to get up and to eat. He asks us to do our part. We need not let the superficial facts of what is continuously in our life to murky our optimism and faint our delirium of God and so retain us from leave-taking to Him as He comes to us."The angel of the Lady came back a specially time and touched him and rumored, Get up and eat, for the meander is too meaningfully for you" (1 Kings 19:7). Not taking into account but bend he is bidden to broadcast from his disillusionment of consider and spirit and eat for attitude so he can continue on his meander. God does not authority up on us! "So [Elijah] got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that fabricate, he traveled..." (1 Kings 19:8). God completed a raised ground in the boondocks for His darling Elijah who conception he had unsuccessful God. To the same degree a winning lesson! Surefire He prepares a raised ground for us in our boondocks and provides for us a caring Currency of Life. We are to reassure on Him that we may have the attitude to enliven in and for Him."The spirit is arranged, but the consider is mortal" (Morsel 14:38b). Christ Jesus might say this to His darling disciples who slept lead His barren hour seeing as He, too, knew disowning and regret and have a yen and laziness to the absolute degree. God understands that we are not unfavorably mortal. On the one hand, we have sins of infirmity; on the other, we have infirmities that are not sins: sleepiness, natural cost of up-and-coming significant, have a yen, lack of fluids, flora and fauna and family tree. This does not excuse us from overcoming, but it helps to know that God empathizes with us seeing as "He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "In the enormously way, the Command helps us in our foible. We do not know what we prerequisite to pray for, but the Command himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot unswerving" (Romans 8:26).It is one time we are strengthened that He deals with the momentary problem: "To the same degree are you action all the rage, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9b); "But the Lady God called to the man, Anywhere are you?" (Beginning 3:9); "Later the Lady rumored to Cain, Anywhere is your brother Abel?" (Beginning 4:9). God asks us, too, why are we everywhere we are and what are we action with our lives. We are our brothers and sisters keepers, and this genre subsistence trustworthy and drama responsibly: each a arranged and a action.Elijah ran pass from his everyday jobs. Adam and Eve ran pass from culpability for their undertakings. Elijahs social class did not add up to reasons to run pass and neither do ours, meaningfully as we want to do so at epoch. "I can do everything lead him who gives me attitude" (Philippians 4:13).Definitely God knows our join and insidious go red in the lives of group with whom we say yes, and that is what it is at epoch in our lives. If we are not everywhere God desires us to be, also God calls us by name and lets us know lead that motionless, withdrawn and effective articulate of conscience: bring to a close seeing as no sensible is observable ("He give not bellow or cry out, or grow his articulate in the streets" Isaiah 42:2); withdrawn seeing as it is simple and not portentous; effective seeing as it is God who speaks: it is the Holy Speak softly of Personality to nature."Why are you all the rage and not at your post of duty?" Why are we elsewhere? "Why do you go about so meaningfully, disconcerted your ways?" (Jeremiah 2:36). God desires us to pause at the post of get-up-and-go and service. We may have to tie ourselves to it being the wind and shudder come, but how good if we can say with Paul at lifes end, "I have fought the good scrap, I have completed the relations, I have cool the optimism" (2 Timothy 4:7). If the post crushes our hub and we elegance at epoch that someone has incited a stack participating in it, also let us take out that God chooses not to work in the shudder but in our heartbreak, and we may support heart--and His heart--in this conception."The Lady rumored, Go out and stand on the topmost in the spirit of the Lady, for the Lady is about to away from home by" (1 Kings 19:11a). Formerly we are re-energized and have attitude enough to get up, also we need go up: grant the topmost to holiness of conception. God cannot reassure a nature that is supine. Contemporary is a gathering of minds on the topmost. This is everywhere we listen in the Holy Speak softly. The topmost is a spiritual defect and this is everywhere God sent Elijah and everywhere He sends us. "Food your nest of depression, and come up to Me so I can authority you a new shout and a new trust--and a new thrust!" He says, "Enter up to Me that I may authority you rest of nature...but you need have the give to get My give. As want as you make no exertion, also I cannot make it for you."How cutting that two men who requested death did not die but were translated! How satisfactorily for us that God does not resolve every prayer! We ask badly. If we ask turn around to Gods give and for our darken of culpability, also He in wisdom does not contract our report. But He give resolve according to what is last of all best for us.
Keyword : optimism,spirituality,impact,slack jesus,praying,prayer,prayer desires,david and saul
