Receiving strength from God

Steadfastness’ has been a helpful focus for us within TFT recently, and it was intriguing to discover that God used our Spring Women’s Weekend to pick up on the same theme. The title for our devotional time was ‘Strength for the Journey’. We looked at 1 Kings 19:1-18 and Elijah’s weariness soon after his victory over the prophets of Baal. Many of us had arrived at the Women’s Weekend tired from the week’s commitments, a familiar pattern for weekends away. However, the passage helped us to recognise that many of us felt more than ‘tired’. Like Elijah, quite a few of us felt deeply weary.  

1: Underneath the broom bush

We looked at the passage across three separate scenes. The opening scene is pretty desperate: Jezebel is out for revenge after the death of the prophets of Baal, so Elijah decides to flee for his life. He seems to have given up hope that God’s plan was working, even though he has just witnessed God’s power, and travels into the wilderness alone, wanting to die under a bush (1 Kings 19:4). We considered whether we could identify with Elijah’s weariness. Elijah felt the cost of his ministry. He wasn’t popular; as a prophet, he was named the “troubler of Israel” (1 Kings 18:17) because he was causing disruption. He was calling people back to worship God in a culture which was going the opposite way. God’s people were abandoning their faith and worshipping a false god; they were even going through a famine because of it. Elijah wasn’t just living counter-culturally; being faithful to the Lord meant he faced persecution from the authorities. 

We couldn’t relate to being a prophet, and none of us had faced persecution to this degree, but we related to the part about living in a culture that is turning away from God. Sometimes we know how hard it is to be an oddity, to be in the minority as a Christian and, on top of that, to be a same-sex attracted Christian living a single and celibate life. This is so at odds with our culture. It’s costly to keep following Jesus, and there was a sense of unease amongst us that the environment is likely to get more challenging in the UK.  

During our prayer time, we wrote post-it notes to share any circumstances that were making us feel weary. We stuck the post-its on a noticeboard around a picture of a broom bush in the wilderness. It was striking how many post-it notes were added, and how many themes we covered: isolation and frustration as the pandemic continues, the war in Ukraine, mental and physical health struggles, financial pressure, responsibilities at work and home, concern about current debates about sexuality, and gender in politics and within the Church.Thankfully, we didn’t stop at making a depressing list! We also used the noticeboard to pray for one another. We reminded each other that we are living in unusually tough times, and we agreed that it was a real comfort to know what happens next in the story. 

2: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you”  

The second scene in the passage is of God ministering to Elijah (1 Kings 19:5-8). God doesn’t let Elijah die, and he doesn’t leave him on his own in the wilderness struggling. He sends an angel to be with him, an angel who knows he needs the comfort of physical touch, and who prepares him a meal of freshly baked bread and water. This is amidst the backdrop of famine, and while Elijah is in the desert. Elijah is so exhausted that he eats and drinks and goes back to sleep. But the angel comes back a second time to revive him. Again, he touches him and says, “Get up and eat”, but this time he adds, “…for the journey is too much for you” (v7). We found it especially comforting to observe that the angel doesn’t give him a pep talk. The angel doesn’t say, “You’ve got this, you can do it!” He actually says that Elijah can’t do it. The journey is too much for him, so he needs to be strengthened for it by the physical and spiritual food and drink that the angel provides. Sure enough, this strengthens Elijah for the journey, and he travels for forty days to the next place.  

As a group, we tried to help each other see how God might minister to us in some of the challenges we were experiencing, but we found it very difficult to see this in some areas of suffering. What was clear to us, though, was that God was not only speaking to us through this choice of passage (which was an amazing provision in itself), but he was also practically demonstrating his love and care through the format of the weekend. God sent an angel to revive Elijah with hospitality when he was weary. Our weariness was met with an abundance of hospitality: home-cooked meals, cups of tea, beds for a good night’s sleep, as well as time enjoying each other’s company. The whole weekend away provided refreshment for us to keep going. 

3: “Go back the way you came”

Scene three is at Horeb (Mount Sinai). Elijah has come back to the mountain where God gave the Ten Commandments and used to meet with his people. God then asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?” (v9). It’s not because he doesn’t know the answer! He is meeting with him and asking him what he’s doing here, at such a significant place. Elijah speaks what is on his heart. He has faithfully served the Lord and been zealous, but God’s people are turning away from him. They’re destroying places of worship and turning to a false god instead. Elijah’s the only faithful one left, and now he’s next to be killed! Elijah is effectively saying, “Where are you, God? The plan isn’t working!”

Again, God makes His presence known. First, in the extraordinary passing-by passage, where He isn’t in the powerful wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in the gentle whisper (v11-13). At this point Elijah has to cover his face because God is too holy to be seen. God is present, as present as He was when He gave his people the Ten Commandments, but we are reminded that we shouldn’t always expect Him to be loud and obvious. The pattern repeats itself. God asks Elijah again what he is doing here, and again Elijah says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (v14). 

God has already shown Elijah that He is present. What does he still need? He needs hope. God graciously shares a picture of his future. He tells him about changes of power. New kings will rule and put the opposition to death, and a new prophet, Elisha, will be his successor (v16). Even better, God shares that Elijah is not the only one left, so it does not all fall to him. He has company among the 7,000 people in the kingdom of Israel who have not yet turned to worship Baal (v18). He thought he was alone, and it was hopeless. But God answers Elijah’s prayer by showing him he has a good plan that will succeed. In fact, this has always been the plan. God tells Elijah to retrace his steps and return the way he came (v15), because Elijah was already where he was supposed to be for God’s plan to come to completion. What is the message for us? We talked about how sometimes we might doubt God’s presence because we’re hoping for an obvious, dramatic revelation or because we’re leaning on our own understanding and can’t see how God is at work. But we know we can trust that God’s salvation plan is working. After all, Jesus has come, died for our sins and risen!

We have the Holy Spirit making us more and more like Jesus. And Jesus is building His Church in these times, adding more and more to our numbers until we’re with Him in the new creation. God promised Elijah the fellowship of 7,000 believers who had not yet turned to Baal when he thought he was all alone. 7,000 might have been a few too many for our Women’s Weekend, but it has been hugely encouraging to see the growth of the women’s ministry in recent years! 

This is a tiny fraction of God’s mission story. We are not promised that the Christian life will be easy; actually, we are told to expect suffering, and so it’s OK to find it hard, but we are shown what will happen in the future. The plan is working. God invites us to be part of building his kingdom wherever He has placed us, and He will strengthen us for the journey. 
 

This article was originally published in the summer 2022 edition of the TFT magazine, Ascend. Click the button below to download your copy.