Why WorrySampel

PRAYER:

God, help me to trust You so that when my concerns begin to rise, my faith will be bigger and my worries will be smaller.

READING:

Now and Then – Part 1

As we continue exploring the issue of worry, we’re going to look at a story from the Old Testament about a man who had a lot to worry about. 

Let’s set the stage. 

The nation of Israel had split into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. Ahab was the king of the Northern Kingdom, and he was a wicked king. He had turned his back on God and led the people of Israel astray. God sent the prophet Elijah with a message for Ahab. Elijah told Ahab that God was going to stop the rain in order to get his attention. 

Several months went by and it didn’t rain, causing serious problems for the people and the economy. Meanwhile, God sent Elijah away to protect him because he was not very popular with the people. So Elijah went away, and God took care of him while the rest of the country was in turmoil.

Three years went by. The economy of the land had been destroyed. God told Elijah to go talk to Ahab again. Elijah told Ahab that God was going to let it rain again, but they needed to have a meeting first. So Elijah and Ahab and the prophets of Baal (a false god) met on a mountain. The prophets were going to pray to Baal, and Elijah was going to pray to Yahweh, and they’d see which of the gods could make it rain. The prophets built their altar and danced and offered sacrifices to try to get Baal’s attention. But nothing happened. Elijah built his altar, and before he lit the altar, he requested that it be drenched with water. Then he prayed, and God lit up the altar. Everyone there recognized that Yahweh was God and Baal was not. And they killed the prophets for misleading the people.

It began to rain, and Elijah was a hero. But Ahab talked to his wife Jezebel, who was a wicked woman and a Baal worshiper. 

“Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, ‘May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.’” – 1 Kings 19:1–2

Her threat was that the next day Elijah would be as dead as all the prophets who were killed. We can imagine Elijah thinking, Well, come on over. I can turn the rain on and off. Did you not hear about the fireworks show on the mountain? Jezebel was a powerful woman, but from our perspective, Elijah had nothing to worry about. 

“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” – 1 Kings 19:3

Despite everything that had happened, Elijah was afraid. He totally forgot about God’s past faithfulness because of the threat about tomorrow. And that’s how we can be. No matter what God has done for us in the past to demonstrate His power and provision, we still worry about the future. 

In tomorrow’s reading, we’ll see what happened next for Elijah. 

REFLECTION:

It can be so easy to forget about God’s past provision in moments when we are afraid. Take some time to reflect on God’s past faithfulness to you. Where have you seen God provide for you? How can you keep that perspective throughout your day when worries start to surface?