30 Days with Elijah by Owen Emily;

Author:Owen, Emily;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Be an Elijah

My response:

Day 16

OK, they’d had their turn and now it was over to me. The first thing I did was to repair the altar of the Lord – it was lying in ruins! Using twelve stones, one for each tribe, I built it in the name of the Lord.

I dug a trench round the altar and arranged wood and meat on top of it. Then I had water poured on it, three times. The water was all over it, running down the sides, filling the trench around the altar.

So, now it is Elijah’s turn. We might expect him to go out,

guns blazing, calling down fire from heaven. He knows

that God can do it and he’s been waiting impatiently to

prove it. Now his time has come … and what is the first

thing he does?

Elijah repairs the altar of the Lord.

Because the altar of the Lord was in ruins and needed

repairing.

Elijah did not let the task in hand make him lose sight of what was ultimately important – worshipping God.

On the one hand, Elijah was expecting a great victory from God and, juxtaposed with that, the altar of the Lord was lying in ruins.

We can apply this picture to our Christian lives.

How often does one aspect of our faith seem to be thriving while another is lying in ruins, needing to be repaired?

For example, maybe we go regularly to a Bible study group but harbour anger and resentment towards a friend or neighbour.

Let’s look at Matthew 23:

Jesus is talking about the religious leaders of his day – and he calls them ‘whitewashed tombs’.

Basically, they looked good on the outside; they played the part of being devout and faithful very well. But inside they were full of wickedness and deceit.

A bit like a tomb that looked good from the outside but inside was full of dead bones.

We need to make sure that we don’t become a whitewashed tomb – simply playing the part on the outside.

It can be easy to get into a bit of a rut in your Christian

life, can’t it?

To go through the motions of church, home groups and

so on, but to actually be spiritually dead inside.

But you can’t do that forever …

And, anyway, spiritually dead is not a nice way to be!

The crucial thing is to keep a close relationship with God.

Look after the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ will take care of itself – not the other way round.

‘Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks’ (Matthew 12:34).

So, what is inside is reflected on what is outside.

We need to concentrate on having hearts and minds that are set apart for God, not lying in ruins.

And, if they are in ruins, repair them.

Make it a priority – there is nothing that is more important.

Lord God,

When I look at my ‘outside’ and my ‘inside,’ they

often don’t match up.

And I know it is the inside that needs working on.

Please work with me.

I want my heart to have a good overflow!

Amen

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