Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
I'm deeply impressed by the man's gentleness. Though Elijah deserved none of the woman's blame, he stood silent under her blast. That's gentleness. Someone, somewhere, has called this fruit of the Spirit "the mint-mark of heaven."
God sometimes seems to put us in the vise, and then He tightens it and tightens it more, until we think, in the pain of His sovereign squeeze, "What's He trying to do to me?" We walk closer to Him and even closer to Him. We don't see how we could walk any closer, but still more tests come, one on top of another.
You can't talk the talk if you've never walked the walk. You can't encourage somebody else to believe the improbable if you haven't believed the impossible. You can't light another's candle of hope if your own torch of faith isn't burning.
If you walk with the Lord long enough, you will discover that His tests often come back-to-back. Or perhaps it would be even more accurate to say back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Usually, His preparatory tests don't stop with one or two. They multiply.
In a very real sense, God has designed a boot camp for His children, but it doesn't last just eight weeks or 10 weeks. Nor is it a weekend seminar we can take or a daylong workshop we can attend. God's training course takes place periodically throughout the Christian life.
Read 1 Kings 17:1–7; James 5:17–18
Elijah had prayed that it would not rain and, ultimately, it did not rain for three and a half years. So, the dried-up brook was just an indication that the very thing he had prayed for was beginning to take place. He was living in the result of his own prayer.
When we hit a tough spot, our tendency is to feel abandoned, to become resentful, to think, How could God forget me? In fact, just the opposite is true. In times of testing, we are more than ever the object of His concern.
I've had my own times when the brook has dried up, and I've found myself wondering about the things I've believed and preached for years. What happened? Had God died? No. My vision just got a little blurry.
Would you accept such an assignment from God? Would you respond with such immediate obedience? How many of us would say nothing except, "Yes, Sir. I trust You completely. I don't need the spotlight to survive." Very few!
We have to learn to trust God one day at a time. Did you notice that God never told Elijah what the second step would be until he had taken the first step?
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