Hello dear readers. In my previous post titled “Never give up”, we’ve learned something from the story of Elijah. We have learned although we could successful overcome big problems, we also could stumble to the small problems and it makes us depressed and want to give up. With God Elijah was successful defeated the 450 Baal’s prophet but it turns out Elijah was really scared when Jezebel threatened him. He depressed and wanted to die. (1 Kings 19:4 NIV)
Well, in this post I want to continue the Elijah’s story. Let’s look further what happened after he came to broom bush and prayed. Let’s have a look what the God’s answer of his prayer. After Elijah prayed, he lay down under the bush and fell asleep, and then an angel came touched him and said: “Get up and eat.”(1 Kings 19:5 NIV) Here there are two important words. This is God’s answer to Elijah’s prayer. This is what God wants so that Elijah can return to the path as God wants.
“Get and up and eat” I ponder deeply to these words and we can get two important and valuable lessons. Let’s focus on the first word, Get up. In other word we can say wake up! Arise! In our lives, when we face so many hard problems and failed to overcome it all, sometime we feel so tired and difficult to rise again. We feel too tired to start again from the beginning. Even worse we tend to hide behind our tiredness; we are frustrated, depressed, and shy away from the realities of life that should be faced. No hope and no desire to rise again. Verily, God doesn’t want it happens to us. God does want us remain strong to face any kind of problems that always exist and when we failed, God doesn’t want us drowned in failure. God always want us to get up again! Not so easy! I really know it. But we have to remember that with God’s inclusion we will able to rise again. God will strengthen us to get up facing every problem. As He said:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”(Joshua 1:9 NIV)
God even promises will uphold us in His right hand. He said:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 NIV)
Life will not always be easy; problems will always be there and there times we have to fall and experience a failure. But it does not mean we should give up. As long as God is still with us, as long as we remain live in the shade of His glory, we have to stay eager to get up and go fight. What The Lord said to Elijah also applies to us. God does not want us to be discouraged or lose hope when faced with pressure or failure. He wants us to always remember that His love and faithfulness upon us will make Himself always be with us forever.
Now let’s take a look to the second word. Eat! After Elijah did a great job defeating 450 prophets of Baal, he got extremely tiredness. His psychical and spiritual energy drained away so he didn’t have reserves power to face Jezebel’s threat. Then God asked him to eat!
He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank… (1 Kings 19:6 NIV)
But what happens after that? Elijah was lying again. It could mean that the food wasn’t enough to recover his energy and then what happened next was:
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” (1 Kings 19:7 NIV)
Elijah was eating again, and through the food he was able to walk again. Not simply walk for short distance but he was able to take 40 days and night until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
What kind of valuable lesson from this part? Here we talk not just about the real food that we need to recover our energy, but here we are more talking about the needs of spiritual food. After we could to get up again, we also need the spiritual food which can make us strong and able to walk back to face all the problems of life. Jesus said:
“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God “(Matthew 4:4 NIV)
…that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV)
It is a very important message. We could eat anything to make us full physically. but if we let our spiritual hungry and thirsty, then we will easily infiltrated by fear, anxiety, easy to depressed, making us easy to give up, even make us forget that God is really cares and is always with us. We are not only need food to alive, to stay strong and to get back on our feet, but we also need food for our soul and spirit. Not only our body could sick, but our spiritual also get sick if doesn’t get good and enough nutrition. Therefore we need to continue to equip ourselves with God’s word, which will be able to strengthen us when we want to rise from failure and facing the life’s problems. God’s word is a nutrition source that will never run out. God’s word is the very best nutrient because it already contained all the needed aspects for our spiritual health and growth.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)
God’s word also guides and directs us when we walk in the dark path and don’t know which way should to go.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (Psalm 119:105 NIV)
Now we come to the last thing. This is my personal thought based on the Elijah’s story. After we successful get up again and fill our soul and spirit with the good spiritual food, we need one more important thing. Courage to step up! Elijah will never get to the Horeb if he didn’t dare to move. If he only get up and eat but without move, he will not get anywhere. It is also the same for us. We must have the courage to tread to face all the problems and challenges of life. We must have the courage to step up make a big change in our lives and achieve what we hoped. When God asked Joshua to continue The Moses leadership to brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, God said to Joshua: “…Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.”(Joshua 1:2-3 NIV) The underlined word means Joshua should to make a step, because if Joshua didn’t move, then he will not stepping on anything. Without stepped up he will not get the God’s promise.
My beloved readers, the process of our lives will continue to run and during the journey we will have so many problems and challenges. We may be facing a lot of failures. We may be so tired, frustrated, depressed, and loss of hope. This evening allow me to encourage all of us to remember these three things. The first, Get up! God doesn’t want us to be discouraged and loss of hope. God wants us to get up again, and again! God really cares to us and He will always strengthen and help us to rise again! As he promised to us He will uphold us with His own righteous right hand! And when we fall, He promises:
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand. (Psalm 37:24 NKJV)
We will never successful to overcome our problems unless we are willing to get up to make something better. Don’t be afraid to get up again. We are not alone. There is God who always be with us.
The second thing is eat! Let’s constantly fill our soul and spirit with God’s word as the best spiritual nutritious food. Don’t let our spiritual starving and thirst just because it will make our spiritual get sick. By maintaining our personal relationship with God through our prayer, quiet time, reading, pondering God’s word every day, and do it in our daily lives will strengthen and make our spiritual lives healthy.
The last thing, don’t ever be afraid and doubt to step up! We have God who always be with us and He always watches over the way where we steps. He will never make us stumble.
He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. (Psalm 121: 3-4 NLT)
Let us vigorously step up to reach what has been promised by God. Without stepping we will not be able to make any change for the better future. Please remember God will never leave us of forsake us, as He promises:
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV) Amen!
Karina – Living by faith
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Karina's Thought 