The Obedience Factor!!

So have you read 1 Kings 17: 1-6? If not, grab the Bible off the shelf and open it with me. Can I just interject right here? (yep just bear with me :), but the Bible is the best book ever written. I know I know you hear that all the time, you see all the "my fav's" on different sites all the time and you'll see its the fav of a lot of people. But what about you? If you don't know take a little time this summer and get to know it. Treat it like an old friend, one that will never leave you, one that always sees you right where you're at, and one that loves at all times. Now your probably thinking that sounds a lot like Jesus, well your right, because when you hold that book in your hands you are truly holding the story of life; True life; Abundant life; Everlasting life sacrificed for you and me. It truly is the greatest story ever told!! God desires to know us and for us to know Him and through the Bible we can know the intricacies of life and the simple; the grand and the common; life and death; it is all in there. So pull up a chair, grab that beautiful Bible and let's begin a great journey through the pages of Holy writ!!

In I Kings 17 we find Elijah and the beginning of a fascinating life; at least in the sense of where it starts in the Bible. This is not the birth story of Elijah, no we are not told the situation surrounding that or his growing up years or even his years before Ahab stepped into the picture, but of this you can be sure, God had His eye on this one. Yep Elijah was going to be used by God in a mighty way. Now I don't know about you, but this is my hearts cry: "God use me!!"

So when you check out verse 1 Elijah is having a conversation with Ahab. Ahab was a very wicked king. This dude? Yeah not a nice guy. Elijah is informing him that God, The God of Israel, The Only God (the One whom Elijah served faithfully) was going to withhold rain and dew from their land until further notice.

A drought is devastating to the land. Where there is no rain, nothing grows; and when nothing grows, your animals do not eat off the land because it is all dried up, and if the animals don't eat they die and if the animals die there goes your food and if the land is all barren there goes more food and if it doesn't rain the streams and rivers dry up; droughts are devastating and Ahab of course knew this, so as you can imagine this was NOT good news, and it was NOT received well!!

So you can see in verse 2 that God tells Elijah to get out of town (Dawn paraphase :). But He didn't just say leave and go anywhere you want, no God told him exactly where he needed to go and even how He was going to provide for Elijah.

So look in verse 5 ~~ look at the argument that Elijah has with God ~~ go on look close ~~ okay seriously you could look all day and you're not going to find one; Elijah didn't argue; he obeyed. Just like that~~ God said leave the comfortable, go to this ravine. He didn't say go to the Hilton and hang out and dial room service, nope go to the ravine, and the Word tells us in verse 5 "So He did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there." Now how amazing is that?!! God said go and Elijah went ~~ love that!!

So we're actually going to look at verse 6 in our next lesson. I'd like to stop here and just ponder a minute. So what has God told you to do? Which ravine is He asking you to go to? And how obedient are you in going? Let me just say that God has asked something specific of me, and Praise His Name I'm trusting Him and He's working it out. I love that about God ~~ you trust, He works. Now granted this is something I've prayed about for a loooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggg time, and to see it coming to fruition in my life is amazing, but it is not how I imagined it would be, but having said that WOW it is GREAT!! God is teaching me so much, but I would not be learning these things if I did not have the obedient factor. I'm sure Elijah had his human doubt moments, but he chose to trust God in this. God said go and Elijah did.

So let me encourage you today to be in the Word and in prayer. You cannot possibly know what God is calling you to do in your life if you don't know Him. So if your reading this today and you're not sure where you stand with God; if your not sure if your saved, pray to Him ask Him to help you and find someone in your life that you know loves God and can open the Word with you and show you the way to life. . .don't delay it is the most important decision you will ever make!!

Thanks for reading today, spend sometime alone with God every day. Don't let the busyness of summer get in your way of time with God. Your summer will go much better if you let God lead you to the ravine instead of the Hilton, if that's His plan!! He is God and He is good!!

In Christ alone,
Dawn