This week marked the start of our study of Elijah. As always, it was great to see old faces return and new faces join us. For the next ten weeks, our blogs here will focus on what we are learning. I hope you will find them an additional tool to help you explore, summarize, or go deeper into what you learn in class.
“Everybody wants the Mount Carmel. We want the flashy display of God’s glory in our lives. And yet in the shadow of these magnificent events is a process. There’s always a process. We’ve got to be willing to go through the process. Are you willing to do what Elijah did to get what Elijah got?”
Priscilla Shirer
As we discussed this question around our table Tuesday morning, the best we could offer was, “I sure hope so.” Because none of us, truthfully, jump at the chance of hard things. But if we look at the stories of the heroes of the faith, we know Priscilla is right. “There’s always a process.”
Abraham and Sara spent half a century waiting for a child. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness. David had his years of running for his life and hiding in caves. Joseph spent 13 years in slavery and prison. The waiting . . . the challenges . . . in short, the process, comes with the territory, right?
Living in full obedience to God has never been the easy road. Jesus told us that if we were to follow him, we had to take up our cross. He warned us that the servant is not better than the master. Maybe the key is not our willingness to take on the process, but our response when we find ourselves in the process.
Are we willing to be grateful in the waiting? Can we find the good in the middle of the hard? Can we continue to trust when God seems distant or silent? Let’s face it. We’re going to spend a lot more of our lives in the process than we will on Mount Carmel. Being equipped to live well during the waiting is something I want to learn from Elijah.
Equip Her 