Listen and Obey

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. (1 Kings 17:1-6)

The message of the Lord to His prophet, Elijah, is readily accepted by the reader. Because the Lord’s commands are past tense, we have hindsight to say, “Isn’t it great that Elijah obeyed and did what God told him to do?” But if this was a command that God gave you, would you be as obedient? Let’s take the black and white words of the Word and look at this in living color. God told Elijah to hide, to drink from a brook and to eat road kill from ravens. These commands would be hard for me to accept. Personally, I would doubt if I was really hearing God’s voice speaking to me and I would wonder why I was the one running and hiding. But the Bible says in verse 5 that “he did what the LORD had told him.”

God will only give us as much as we can handle. As we become faithful to do what the Lord tells us in the small things, He will entrust us with bigger commands. Elijah knew what it meant to listen and obey. He had a mighty ministry but the works of the ministry meant nothing in comparison to the obedience of his heart to do what the Lord had said. God can entrust a mighty ministry to an obedient heart. And an obedient heart just wants to please God regardless of the extent of the ministry or the commands.

We have the Bible; the Bible is the book of what God wants for us. The Lord will speak to you through the Bible if you are really willing to listen. The Lord will lead you if you really want His direction. The difficulty comes when God’s word doesn’t seem to make sense to our situation. So instead of doing what He says, we choose our own ways. Faith goes against the flesh. Most things God says to me make no sense to my intellect or feelings or circumstances. But, when I listen and obey the smallest of commands, I have seen His faithfulness develop my faith to handle the next command like Elijah. I want to do all the Lord tells me to do. I want to run the race He has set before me, even if it means hiding out and eating ravens’ food.

Lord, help me to be faithful with the little things so that I may be faithful with all You have for me. Amen!

What a devotion!! What trust from Elijah, my prayer today is that no matter the calling or direction on our lives from God, that we would be ready and willing to say, Yes Lord, lead me and I will follow. It’s so easy to say but far more difficult to put into action. Especially when we think we got it all figured out, we must be faithful over the little things and when He says go we go and when He says stop we stop. He is so real, we can have that kind of relationship with Him just as Elijah did but it’s the moments that we have to go outside our comfort zone that we stop and do what feels comfortable but I am reminded of this quote, the sooner you step away from your comfort zone; the sooner you’ll realize that it really wasn’t all that comfortable. Allow God to show you the truth behind that. Be obedient and trust Him, He has so much in store for you, listen and obey.

Have a blessed day in The Lord!

Today’s Reading is Romans 8:39