Surrender Without Ceasing

I suspect you’re waiting on God to do something. Perhaps you're eager for the chance of a first date or maybe to be asked a big ring-shaped question. Maybe you find it hard to even dare to hope for any of those things.

Israel is waiting for the rain.

The good news is the people have turned back to God and there are rumblings of a rainstorm.

But the drought has been long, the famine intense. Surely, we can all sympathize if Elijah felt a little skeptical. Plus, he can’t afford to be wrong, he’s only just got them on God’s side. So, he prays and his servant says,

[…] “There’s nothing”

Yep…been there before, my friend.

But Elijah stays bent down on the ground, telling his servant to check for signs of rain again, seven times.

You see, this is familiar territory. When Elijah was with the widow, her son got sick. In fact, he stopped breathing. Why would God send such tragedy to this woman? With the dead boy in front of him, Elijah prays.

Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again!”

Three times! Elijah doesn’t give up.

So the LORD listened to Elijah. The boy’s life came into him again, and he lived.

What unanswered prayers have you stopped waiting on that seem as good as dead?

On Mount Carmel, Elijah finds himself in a similar situation. Seeing potential tragedy (the death of a starving nation) and keeping himself in a posture of prayer, he continues to go back to God until he hears:

[…] “There’s a cloud as small as a man’s hand coming up from the sea."

The tiniest cloud and still Elijah knows his prayer has been answered. Be encouraged that in your place of lost hope, God wants to show you a glimmer of His plans.

God never left Elijah; in providing when he had nothing, in bringing the boy back to life, in sending fire from heaven to consume a water-soaked offering. Elijah knows he can trust God by going back to ask Him to move again.

Trust means not giving up on prayer, going back to God again (and again), and recalling His great works before, to fuel our hope now.