DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we left Elijah down in the dumps and running for his life. He fled into the desert where he found a tree under which he huddled and prayed a rather mournfully depressed prayer. However, when he prayed he seemed to do so into silence – thin air. This was the same man who earlier prayed for fire to come down from heaven and it did, and yet here his prayers seem pointless and empty.
So Elijah falls asleep. He is then woken by an angel and fed, and then sent onto a mountain where he finds a cave to hide in. Depressed. Alone. Angry. Bitter. Perhaps you have been through a similar life moment and can easily relate? Where once everything seemed so clear and faith was easy, now God seems distant and your heart is filled with questions.
If I had to sum up in one sentence what we can learn from Elijah’s story so far it would be in the following way:
It is clear that in life bad things happen to good people (like Elijah), but what we also learn is that doesn’t stop God from being good.
What the Bible reminds us is that when we feel alone and abandoned by God, it is just that - a feeling. A powerful feeling to be sure, but a feeling nonetheless because God is always there! Always!
Whether we feel him or perceive him, he IS there.
For instance, God was there for Elijah. It’s just that in the misery of his selfpity he failed to see it. For example, the tree Elijah lay under was just handy shade he hardly noticed. But a tree in the desert?! After 3 years of drought? Well, that’s a miracle.
The official name of the tree is ‘rotem’, and it has this delicate white flower with a maroon centre and can commonly be found along beds of driedup streams. Its beauty always stands out from the surrounding desiccation, but Elijah did not notice this moment of grace because he was too wrapped up in his own misery.
And what about the angel? The Hebrew word for this angel is ‘mal’ak’, which basically means messenger, and is in fact the identical term used for the messenger that Jezebel used to threaten Elijah! Jezebel sends a messenger of death, but God sends one of life. However, the point is that here is a messenger of God’s presence that Elijah again did not notice. He ate without seeing and was nourished without realising.
Know this then. Even in our darkest, most lonely moments and despite how isolated and abandoned we feel ... God IS ALWAYS there.
Have you looked for evidence of God’s presence in your life today? Or have you been too wrapped up in self or in immediate concerns to notice?
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, help us to learn to see all those moments of grace that we so often take for granted. Help us to learn that our feelings of abandonment are just that – feelings – and they don’t reflect the truth, for the consistent Biblical promise is that you will always be with us. Help us to hold onto that with all our strength. In Christ name we pray. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 Kings 19. 3-6 (NIV)
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
