Alone… I’ll be alone this week-end. In a crowd…
I often feel alone. The weight of responsibility, struggles against personal issues, business decisions, financial needs and responsibilities, concerns about family, ….it gets heavy sometimes. Often, the enemy accuses and tries to deceive me…trying to convince me that I am alone…the only one. He is a liar. I am never alone. He tried that on Elijah…had him thinking he was the only one.
Then the Lord answered.
“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” ( 1 Kings 19:11)
Elijah had been God’s mouthpiece. It got him a lot of problems to deal with, especially from Jezebel. She didn’t like the message and she was intent on shutting him up. Elijah just got overwhelmed, and did what I often want to do…and have done. Run. Hide.
At least he had run to a place that was connected with God…a place where Moses had met with God. Now that he was there, there was “a great and powerful wind……but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake.”(vs.11)
Ok…He’s supposed to be passing by, you’d think it would be a really big thing…but the powerful displays were just shaking ground and blowing wind. No comfort there !
“After the earthquake came a fire..” Surely God will communicate thru these appearances of flames…right? “But the Lord was not in the fire.” (vs.12)
Sigh… I’ve looked for God and EXPECTED God to come to my aid in ways like that. Make a grand entrance Lord…come in and rock the house. And He certainly can and has done that. He’s there in the powerful miraculous things He does. He’s there in the mega-church gatherings, He’s there in the big conferences with thousands gathered…He’s there in the praise rallies. But it’s just hard for me to hear Him in all that noise and activity.
So like Elijah, I’m going off to be alone, and I expect to hear The Whisper…in fact, He’s already started this morning, with this reflecting time.
“After the fire came a gentle whisper…When Elijah heard it….he pulled his cloak over his face and went out….” (vs. 13)
God shows up. Every single time I seek His Face…He shows up.
He is so very good.
