Psalm 62:1-2 says, "My soul finds rest in God alone. My salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress. I will never be shaken." That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? And I am sure we are all living it right now, correct? Haha. Wouldn't it be great to say yes! We'd be lying, wouldn't we? The truth is that we are busy, and burdened, and full of anxiety and stress.
Why is this? Well, especially for women living in the real world, we are just so busy! Why do I single out women? Here's why. Does anyone remember the 1980 Enjoli commercial? It said, "I can bring home the bacon; fry it up in a pan. And never let you forget you're a man, 'cuz I am woman!" You see, this was at the time when women's liberation was a big thing. Women wanted to get out in the working world and become somebody; they wanted to have a career, earn their own money, become their own persons. And there is nothing wrong with that. They felt they were worth more than just having babies and cleaning homes, and yes, taking care of their husbands.
And they got just that. Women are now out in the working world just like men. They earn their own money, they are running companies, and it is terrific. Except for one small detail: women never gave up any of the other stuff they were doing. Instead of trading off homemaking for a job, they ended up with both.
Oh sure, there are many men who help around the house if the wife works. But there are also many who don't. And as much as we've progressed, women are still expected to keep the home. So whereas women before had to do the cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, dishes, and chauffeuring, they still do all of that plus hold down a job. It's exhausting.
Is there a way to fix this? There is, if women are willing to do it. We can take our que from a guy in the Bible who found he had this same problem. I am talking about Elijah.
This part of the story of Elijah is found in the book of 1 Kings, chapters 17-19. Elijah comes on the scene as a prophet to Israel, the northern kingdom, somewhere around 850 BC. Specifically, he is to be a prophet to King Ahab, an evil king who is not following what God wants him to do. Elijah shows up in chapter 17 and tells Ahab that there is going to be a drought, and there won't be any rain except by Elijah's word. Then he immediately hightails it out of there, before Ahab can even blink.
Elijah goes and hides by the brook Cherith, just across the Jordan River, and at this point it is the start of what I call Elijah's private ministry. He has nothing to do all day but sit by the brook and drink water. Ravens come and feed him cakes in the morning and at evening. What a ministry! He has time to meditate and rest and do a whole lot of nothing.
All good things come to an end, however, and so it did for Elijah. Being that there was a drought, that brook eventually dried up. So God sent Elijah to a widow up on Zarephath, north of Israel. He goes and stays with this widow and her son, and while he's there, the oil and the flour to make cakes does not run out. This part of Elijah's ministry is no longer private, but it's small and simple. He's being fed and all he has to do is minister to the widow and her son. He even raises the son from the dead when he falls ill and dies. That's my kind of ministry, full of miracles and success!
Eventually though, this too comes to an end. God finally calls Elijah after three and a half years to go find King Ahab. The drought is over and it is time to start his public ministry. Elijah obeys and off he goes, finding King Ahab and challenging him. You see, King Ahab had 450 prophets of the false god Baal. His wife, the even more evil Jezebel, has 400 of her own false prophets. Elijah's job is to see that Israel stops listening to these false prophets and starts following the one true God again. So he challenges Ahab's and Jezebel's false prophets to a battle to see whose god is the real God! Ahab's prophets accept, but Jezebel's do not. (This becomes important later).
They all go up to the top of Mount Carmel and Elijah lets the prophets of Baal go first. They build an altar and sacrifice a bull on it. Then they begin dancing around and calling out to Baal to send down fire. Well, nothing happens. So they yell louder, and louder. Eventually Elijah says that maybe their god is sleeping or on a journey. Pretty soon these false prophets are in a frenzy, whipping themselves and dancing around, screaming for Baal.
This goes on all day. Finally, toward dusk, Elijah sets up his own altar and arranges the sacrifice on it. He digs a trench all around it, and commands people standing nearby to pour water on it. There are some large jars and they fill them and pour water all over Elijah's sacrifice. He commands them to do it again, and even a third time. Finally, the sacrifice is sopping wet and even the trench is full of water. Then Elijah prays, asking God to accept the sacrifice. Sure enough, fire comes down from heaven and burns up the sacrifice and all the water. And it even licks up all the water in the trench!
At this moment it seems that revival is breaking out. The people are shouting and praising God, and Elijah commands them to round up and kill all of the prophets of Baal. And he himself tells Ahab to hurry back to Jezreel because rain is coming. Ahab hops in his chariot and takes off.
Meanwhile, Elijah, still giddy from all that's happened, goes up to Mt. Carmel and kneels down to pray for the rain that he knows should be coming. He asks his servant and go look, and the servant comes back and says, "Nothing yet." So Elijah prays some more, and then asks the servant to check again. Finally, after praying seven times, the servant confirms that rain is indeed coming. So Elijah hitches up his cloak and takes off running toward Jezreel, something like 20 miles away. He runs so fast, in fact, that he catches up to Ahab's chariot and passes it by, beating Ahab into Jezreel.
And right here it all falls apart. You see, we don't know why Elijah ran so fast, and we will never know what he was going to do when he got to Jezreel. Why? Because, we are told that when Ahab arrived he went and whined to Jezebel about all that had happened. Jezebel then sent out her people (remember those prophets that did not attend the competition?) and they are going to kill Elijah.
Elijah by now is exhausted. And because he is so tired he can't think straight. He promptly forgets about all the wonderful things God has done for him over the last three and a half years. He forgets the miracles and he forgets that God is on his side. When he realizes that there is no revival coming his heart drops. He leaves everything and runs. It doesn't matter that he has seen miracles with his own eyes. It doesn't matter that he has actually performed miracles. It doesn't matter that God has confirmed things with the fire on the sacrifice. Elijah is worn out, and all of that goes away. He drops everything and disappears.
We are told that he heads south, leaving his servant behind and going out into the wilderness. He lays down and tells God that he just wants to die, because he is no better than his fathers. We have to ask. Did he think he was better because of all the wonderful rohani madani istikhara pakistan ? Had he gotten a big head because of how God was using him? It appears that the saying is true: "The bigger they are the harder they fall."
God sees that Elijah is exhausted and he sends an angel with food and water, saying, "The journey is too much for you." Elijah eats and drinks and lays down again, and the angel comes once more with food and water. Elijah eats and then heads south, all the way down to Mt. Sinai. When he gets there he hides in a cave.
God comes to Elijah, asking him why he's there. Elijah has a canned answer about how he's been zealous and now they're out to kill him and he's the only prophet left. God then sends a wind, but God is not in the wind. Next comes an earthquake. But God is not in the earthquake. Then He sends fire, but God is also not in the fire. Lastly, God sends a still-small-voice. Elijah hears it and goes out of the cave. Again, God asks, "Why are you here?"
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