However something tragic happened.
1 Kings 17:17 Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him.18 So she said to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?"
19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?"21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him."22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!"
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."
The widow's son suddenly fell sick and died. Her immediate response was that her sin was the cause. She felt the death of her son was the condemnation of God for her past sins.
Elijah immediately asked for the boy and carried his lifeless body to the upper room. The widow must have provided a room for Elijah and he must have spent much time praying and in communion with the Lord. The upper room was Elijah's meeting place with the Lord. And so in that place he prayed for the boy to be restored to life.
Notice here that Elijah prayed 3 times.
We need to learn persistence from Elijah.
He prayed 3 times. He was full of faith but yet he prayed 3 times.
Repetition need not be done in unbelief.
Jesus also prayed 3 times, apparently over the same thing in the garden of Gethsemane.
We need to learn to PUSH in prayer.
Pray Untill Something Happens.
We need to persevere, to persist, to travail, to cry out, to wait....to fight!
It was a time with just Elijah and the Lord.
We need those times of solitude with the Lord to push things through.
The widow's words after Elijah gave back her son was,
"Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."
We glorify God when we walk closely to Him, obey His voice and do His will. And people around us will know that our God lives and that He speaks and does miracles out of His great love and compassion.
PEOPLE NEED THE LORD. The way they will find Him is through us who knows Him, walks with Him and obeys Him.
Let's seek to know Him intimately and obey Him promptly.
No comments:
Post a Comment