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The Speed of Life

I cannot recall the first time I heard the story about Elijah’s confrontation at Mount Carmel with the idolatrous prophets of Baal. But I do remember being surprised by his sudden case of the jitters afterward!

This guy, this great prophet who had just called down fire from heaven to light the sacrifice on God’s altar, is the same guy who suddenly turned and fled in fear?

This victor, this man who had just ordered the deaths of 450 of Queen Jezebel’s false prophets, is the same man of God who hid in the wilderness and prayed to die when the enraged queen vowed to make him pay with his life?

Yep. It is the same person. He panicked. And before we judge Elijah too harshly, we might take a look at the logs in our own eyes. Walking by faith means that we want to rely on God all the time. But wanting to rely on God does not make us immune to doubt and fear.

When Elijah allowed fear to enter his heart and Jezebel to get into his head, he also allowed his spiritual momentum to be jolted. Looking back at the narrative of his remarkable life, we struggle to make sense of what exactly went wrong.

But we might ask ourselves the same question.

You can probably see moments in your life when God intervened in amazing ways. You can likely also see moments when you disappointed yourself by how you turned away from Him. These mile markers remind us that the spiritual journey often follows a stop-and-start-again pace.

The important thing is to get up and get moving. Elijah did, and you can, too.

When you are going at a fast speed and then suddenly hit a wall, you are going to be disoriented. But as you get back on your feet and regain your bearings, you can refocus on what you know is true. Because how can you stay down when the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you?

When you rely on God to sustain you, then you always have the power necessary to get up again and get moving.

Questions to Ponder: Does your awareness of God’s presence motivate you to keep going? How is God’s Spirit giving you a second wind to help you keep your hand to the plow?