Tuesday Scripture: 1 Kings 18
Small Signs of Hope
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So Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”
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Here is a satellite image of the holy land.
See that green stuff on the left?
That is not Israel.
That's the land of the neighbors who served Baals, the gods of fertility, virility, and sex.
Their rains came like clockwork, right on time.
For God's people, life was not so easy.
In times of drought and famine it made sense to hedge their bets.
Trust Yahweh for the big stuff--like salvation--but ask the neighbor's gods to help with rain and harvest.
Elijah said that was the whole problem.
You couldn't serve two masters.
The blessings of life couldn't come from God AND someplace else.
When God promised rain, it would come.
But even then, the promise required powerful prayer.
Elijah touched the earth and prayed until he saw a faint promise.
A tiny cloud the size of a man's hand.
That was all he needed to see.
The blessing was on its way, and it was coming in buckets, not droplets.
They had gone through three years of desperation.
No wonder they looked for a little help elsewhere.
But the answer came from fervent prayer and solid faith, not from side bets.
If our current Corona virus should go on for three years, I wonder how hard it would be to keep from looking for those side bets?
But the answer is still the same.
Prayer. Faith. And tiny signs of promise.
Keep praying.
Keep on believing.
And keep on watching for signs of promise.
God is still the answer.
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Lord, let me see signs of hope today.