Teach Me To PrayMuestra

Prayer Heroes: Elijah

When you read the Bible a lot, certain patterns emerge. One that has come to surprise me is the strategy that God keeps going back to over and over, especially when a major crisis looms. That strategy is to send one guy. In the 9th century B.C., at a time of terrible spiritual weakness and even worse spiritual leadership, God’s Plan A was to send Elijah to rebuke an evil king (sounds like a death sentence) and to encourage the few faithful believers.

Elijah was sent to oppose the spiritual ruination being brought about by Ahab and his miserably idolatrous wife Jezebel. They developed a reputation for simply having their opponents killed.

Elijah was God’s agent in bringing about a punitive drought and famine, but also in bringing about the merciful rainfall that ended them. “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain” (James 5:17,18).

When you are in tune with God’s agenda, your prayers have the power of dynamite. Don’t ever say, “I’m just one.” From God’s point of view, one is plenty.