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up and show off while they offered a sacrifice up. The prophets of Baal,
numbering in around 450, created an altar, offered their sacrifice and then
chanted for their god to show up. All morning nothing happened. Elijah
even mocked them a little bit. Into the afternoon they began cutting
themselves, hoping that their god would show up, but nothing happened.
Finally, Elijah told them to stop, and he carried out what God had told
him to do. He built an altar, made a sacrifice, and soaked it all in water –
and God consumed it.
You would think after such a huge victory, Elijah would have walked
boldly, anywhere his feet would have taken him, and yet he didn’t. He
ran at the first word of a threat. Fortunately, God wasn’t done with him
yet. He sends an angel to feed him, and then leads him for 40 days and
nights to Mount Horeb. There, He decides to show Elijah who He is.
First, a huge wind arrives that tears through the mount of God. But
God was not in the wind. Then an earthquake occurs, and the ground
is violently shaken, but God is not in the earthquake. Next, a fire breaks
out, but God is not in the fire. And then a low whisper was heard – and
there, in that low sound, that could barely be heard, was God. He arrived
in a way that was never expected, and in that silence His true majesty and
power was on full display!
Your challenge again is to stay in Silence for 5 minutes with the Lord.
In that silence, He will meet you, He will show you His strength, and
He will change you. Don’t be afraid of the silence, as if it is something
to avoid. Embrace the silence as an opportunity to hear loudly God,
working in you! For the next 5-10 minutes, ask God to open your eyes
so that you might see others the way that He does. That you might see
their pain, and their hopelessness, and their fear. Because when you see
all of that, you begin to understand the healing that can happen in silence,
but you also begin to see and understand the compassion and grace that
Christ has for each of us! I am excited for you! God is moving!
Question: What is it that distracts you from the silence and
presence of God?