FAITH FIRE #4

God Gold of the Day

Hey everybody! I wanted to share with you for the next few days some “old gold” that I had sent out awhile back! It’s on a story in 1 Kings about Elijah that I had studied and really found a lot of fire in my faith during that time so as you read through these I pray they will light your faith on fire as well!!!

“Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood. Then he said, “Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood.” After they had done this, he said, “Do the same thing again!” And when they were finished, he said, “Now do it a third time!” So they did as he said, and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench.”

1 Kings 18:30-35

 

So back to the story of Elijah challenging the prophets of all these other gods at Mt. Carmel. The biggest lesson from this story is obviously faith and the first few times I read it I just thought, “man I wish I could have faith as strong as Elijah.” Wouldn’t that change some things right? The problem I had in looking at it that way was the fact that I don’t need to try and be like Elijah or try to have faith like Him, his faith was only so strong cause he served a God that was so big and so strong! Cool part is, we serve that same mighty and loving God!!! The more we try to be like someone else, the less we are the person God made us to be. Elijah is a great example to learn from for sure but the greatest lesson is the freedom you have when realizing the importance of that relationship with the Lord. The more you learn about who He is and what He’s capable of, keep your eyes set on Him, and receive the love that He constantly loves you with, that’s how faith is grown. Elijah is telling these guys to dump water on the wood? How’s God gonna light it on fire if it’s wet? And aren’t they in a drought why would he sacrifice all this water? Elijah is trying to prove a point about God to everyone watching and even Himself. That’s the beauty of having a relationship with Jesus Christ, usually the more things look impossible, His power works best in weakness. No matter what wild circumstances you have in your life, that’s all the more reason to press in to Christ! Elijah’s sacrifice here is a lesson in itself. He did it out of His relationship with God. I’m sure he knew that doing this would look crazy and not make sense but he also knew who God was, what God could do. And that’s where God makes all the difference. Christ gave us freedom with His sacrifice on the cross and the only way to embrace that freedom is sacrificing ourselves and our wild circumstances to Him. Think about it, what’s one thing in your life you wish you could do better at, one sin stronghold that eats you up and you wish you could get rid of? Usually the more you look to the problem like the drought, the worse it becomes and the smaller your view of God gets. When you just put your focus, time and energy into your relationship with the Lord and stop looking at all the bad or impossible around you, that’s when you can embrace the freedom Christ has given you cause the more you look to Him  the more you don’t just believe He’ll bring the fire, you can expect it. Looking Horizontal at the wild impossible only brings more doubt and worry. Sacrifice starts with lowering yourself and stop trying to fix everything on your own then lifting your eyes. Christ has already given us the victory and even tho it doesn’t look that way, look up and you’ll see real quick how God and impossible don’t mix. The freedom has already been given, all we can do is sacrifice our lives to Him and believe it, walk in that freedom! It’s crazy how all those Horizontal struggles start to fall into place and change when your eyes and hearts are constantly upward to God!