When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The
Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken 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."
The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert
of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son
of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him." – 1Kings 19:13-18
Elijah is one of the characters in the Bible who falls into his very own category. He did some pretty amazing things for God and even bypassed physical death when he was taken directly into heaven in a chariot of fire and horses (2Kings 2:11).
What I love in this particular passage above is that, though Elijah felt completely alone and abandoned, he wasn't. God not only made a His presence known, He also let Elijah know he wasn't the only one still faithful to God. Seven thousand others existed, reserved by God.
When I thought about what to write for this weekend's devotional, this passage came to mind. I felt as if God were whispering in my ear that someone out there needed to know they are not alone. (Little did I know that when I wrote this, I would need this reminder too.) Sometimes we can feel so alone in our mismatched marriages or the struggles we face. Even within our churches, we can feel alone and abandoned.
But we're not. The enemy would love for us to believe that so he steal away our hope like the thief that he is, but it's a lie. We have a God who adores us and a family of believers connected to us in ways we cannot even fathom. Connected in ways even deeper than we are to our earthly families.
This place, here…this blog is one of them. We share our struggles, our faith, our hopes…we share Jesus whose mercy and grace never are unending. That's amazing when you think about it.
We are family, and I am so thankful for and blessed by every one of you. Thank you for being my family.
Praying and believing,
Dineen
Leave a Reply