The angel of the LORD came to him a second time. He touched him and said, “Get up and eat. Your journey will be long and hard.” [8] So he got up. He ate and drank. The food gave him new strength. He traveled for 40 days and 40 nights. He kept going until he arrived at Horeb. It was the mountain of God.
[9] There he went into a cave and spent the night. A message came to Elijah from the LORD. He said, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” 1 Kings 19:7-9 NIrV
God exerts and expresses an unwavering perseverance when he sees our good days having gone bad.
He doesn’t stop loving us when we fail, sin, or give up. His heart remembers and thinks of us at our best, not at our worst. This is what grace is all about, and what Elijah surely realized when God touched him a second time.
Has God touched you for the second time? Are you awake or still trying to sleep? Do you trust him enough to take the journey, since trust is what gets us up?
God’s heart remembers and thinks of us at our best, not at our worst.
Trust is the seed of faith, which grows when watered with obedience. Elijah got up, even when God told him the journey would be long and hard, and this act of obedience made his faith grow. This growing faith allowed physical food to give him new strength – a strength from God that allowed him to keep going for 40 days and 40 nights until he arrived at the mountain of God.
Once Elijah arrived at the mountain of God, he went into a cave, where he was ready to have a conversation with God.
The goal for today is to plant the seed of trust in your heart, and to water it with the obedience of faith that inspires you to get up.
Explore more:
As the editor in chief for Deep Spirituality, Russ Ewell writes, teaches, and innovates with his eyes on the future. His teaching is rooted in providing hope for those turned off by tradition and infused with vision for building a transformative church. His passion to inspire even the most skeptical to view God through fresh eyes can be found in his book, He's Not Who You Think He Is: Dropping Your Assumptions and Discovering God for Yourself.
As the editor in chief for Deep Spirituality, Russ Ewell writes, teaches, and innovates with his eyes on the future. His teaching is rooted in providing hope for those turned off by tradition and infused with vision for building a transformative church. His passion to inspire even the most skeptical to view God through fresh eyes can be found in his book, He's Not Who You Think He Is: Dropping Your Assumptions and Discovering God for Yourself.
Recommended for you
What matters is we have a God who can always lift us out of the pit
Jesus endured the pressures of sin, and we can learn from him how to do the same.
In our moments of frustration and failure, we need to turn to God and his Word to find the strength to keep going.
