contributed by:
Tyler Ward
Spiritual Formation Pastor
This past weekend, Pastor Ron talked about one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It's a story about one of my favorite people in the Bible - a guy named Elijah. I like him because his life inspires me…it reveals to me how profoundly God can use us when we walk closely with him and are fully confident in him.
Just a quick personal note for you…this is one of the reasons we named our oldest son Elias - it's the Greek form of the name Elijah.
As I mentioned, he is one of my favorite people in the Bible - and the story of his confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel is one of my favorite stories. Whenever I read it, hear a teaching on it, or visit the place in Israel where this unfolded, I find myself being both comforted and convicted.
The comfort is found in the greatness of God that is so powerfully demonstrated in this story. I'm reminded that God is bigger than anything…that he is the one true God and there is no other god besides him.
In addition to this comfort, though, I also experience tremendous conviction. I'm convicted by the fact that despite the greatness of God that is on display for all to see, so often I live with such limited confidence in him. The words I speak, the actions I take, and the prayers that I pray demonstrate that when push comes to shove…I do not really believe about God all that I claim to at times. And as a result, I hinder and limit the ways that he can use me to point others to him - to help others see, as they did in this story, that the LORD is God and there is none like him.
I pray that God will help all of us to overcome this - that he will help us to walk closely enough with him that we will know who he is and what he is capable of - and that as a result, we will be bold, courageous, never wavering, and willing to be used in any way to point people to him…so that the hearts of people all around us would return to him again.
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