We’ve all seen it.. nah… we’ve all experience the proverbial “bully” on the playground. The scene is set – the bully sees us, walks towards us with their entourage trailing them, the bully makes an off handed comment to one of the henchmen and both laugh in our direction… the swaggering pride, the glare… us shaking in our boots, feeling worse by the second. And it’s not about the physical pounding. No. It runs deep than that. Its the shame and powerlessness that stays with us long after the bully has left. It doesn’t help to run, we’d never live it down, we can’t stand our ground, we just don’t have that kind of power. We stand there, waiting for their boots to be laid to our head… again.
Sigh.
Lonely places.
Maybe it’s not a playground memory of yours. Maybe it’s a memory around a water-cooler at break time, in the gym, a court room, or ________________ (fill in the blank).
Yeah, me too. Several times in my life.
At times I was the guy running scared, but oddly, sometimes, I was the Elijah in the situation.
(An Elijah-Moment Rabbit trail – one time, when we were hoping to adopt our – then, foster child, the social worker told me to fill out a 12 page form for the new prospective foster parents. I told her it wouldn’t be necessary because we wanted to adopt this boy. She said we couldn’t because there were many people who would want this boy and we certainty weren’t first on the list. Here was my Elijah moment – I said, “If God wants us to have this boy, there is NOTHING you can do about it.” She turned ashen grey and made excuses to leave. More on the outcome of that next time).
Let’s see how Elijah dealt with HIS accuser/bully.
The Back Story (1 Kings 18:17-19)
At the outset we find Elijah searching for King Ahab. Keep in mind, the Holy Spirit had a habit of whisking Elijah away just before he would be caught by Ahab’s mercenaries. God had told Elijah that he was to go meet Ahab. Likely, God would have given Elijah a few instructions about what was going to happen and how God was going to do that. The tow of them had been in discussion LONG before the meeting with Ahab.
The first thing King Ahab said to Elijah at their first meeting in 3 years, was, “Are you the one who is bringing disaster on Israel?”. ( I sense there is a responsibility issue going on.) King Ahab had been listening to his wife over the heart of God for his people. Their leadership brought Israel down the path of evil and brought God’s anger on the nation.
Elijah’s heart was sensitive to God’s heart. God’s heart was tired of battling for the heart of the people. He wanted to show them who he was. He told Elijah to call a show down.
Thought
God and Elijah talked. Just plain, talked. My guess, is that Elijah talked to God about everything and God decided what He would answer. Elijah talked about his heartbreak as he saw his people turn from the Truth, to the truth-of-the-day (which, by the way, is no truth at all). Elijah probably talked about the pain of loosing his friends to the wickedness of the queen. He probably begged Him to stop it, long before the 3 years were up. Elijah probably just talked to God about supper, too. (Remember, there was a famine and Elijah was probably deeply thankful every day for his bread.)
It’s out of THIS quiet relationship that Elijah knew who God was! Elijah knew God’s promises, he knew God’s character, he could trust God’s wisdom, he was secure in God’s view of him. Elijah could work out of the confidence of who God was in his life, to speak to who he was as a human. His heart knew that it knew that it knew who his Heavenly Daddy was and he could be who he was meant to be. He knew that 2 (God and him) versus a king and 450 prophets of baal and 400 prophets of asherah wasn’t gonna be a fair fight. God and Elijah were gonna win.
I am in the process of knowing God. How are you doing with that? Darling, I’m so glad you’re here. Reading this. THIS – this stuff, this blog, is covered in prayer for you (yes, you), and I ask God many times a day to show me something I can share. Something real, something Holy, something that will change your (my) life. (yes, life changing every day). (That’s why I can’t post EVERYDAY, sometimes, I have to sit with what God gives me and be quiet before Him, in the process. Thank you for your patience in that. But, just so you know, I STILL pray EVER DAY, many, many times about this, about you and about your heart and mine.)
How about you? I find, that for me, I look at my circumstances and wonder if God is big enough, strong enough and kind enough to give me what I need and if he cares enough to give me what I want. With all my heart, I want my heart to be reconnected with the ones I love. Obviously, if I read Elijah’s story, God can certainly do ALL of that and more. Why do I wonder? Why do I worry? Why do you wonder? Why do you worry?
And about the accuser…the one that creates all the havoc and takes none of the responsibility…yeah, that one… Do you have an circumstance that is like the bully Ahab in your life? Has your Ahab set himself up to be a king in your life? Does it have illegitimate authority in your life?
Ahab wanted to pin the drought on Elijah, since Elijah was the one that did the praying about it and asked God to stop the rain. But in truth, it was Ahab’s stubborn rebellion that prevented Elijah from asking God to release the rain. It would have continued until the whole nation would have died, unless God would have intervened. (which He did).
Remember, Elijah knew who God was, so the shame-blame-slinging words of Ahab didn’t stick. They slid off like batter on a greased chicken -there just ain’t no traction without flour! It was God who provided the flour (literally and figuratively) that allowed the words of God to last.
It was God’s thoughts towards Elijah that told Elijah where to 1. place his confidence, 2. who loved him, 3. who would protect him, 4. who he was. It was the quiet times they had over the years that allowed Elijah to drown out the noise of Ahab, now. The all-consuming reality that God lives from (then and now), had imbedded itself into the very DNA of Elijah so that he believed what God said about… everything.
I almost wouldn’t call it courage. Yes, Elijah knew about the upcoming showdown, but when you KNOW, deeply know, the outcome of an event, you hardly need to have courage. Courage is necessary in the face of fear. Elijah wasn’t afraid here. (more on that in a later episode) Deeply knowing, a true knowing, just needs to be walked out and experienced. It’s like you read the last page of the suspense novel and you know who wins. There no courage in that. There is just getting all the details.
My darling, separate your fear from the accuser’s words. Please take time to know the difference. It matters. Here’s why. You can give your fear to Jesus so you can experience the Love of the Father. It’s his love takes care of your personal fear. The accuser’s words against you can be/has been/will be stamped with God’s DNA reality on you. When this happens you just need to experience the deep knowledge of what God has said about you and the circumstance. Fear isn’t necessary for that to happen. The accuser’s words can be dismissed. You can walk out of the knowledge you already have. You don’t need to believe the bully’s taunts. Remember, you know the ending of the story already, it’s written in Jesus’ royalty-blood that courses through your veins.
loved how you explained why it’s important to separate fear from the accuser’s words. Excellent teaching! And so true. Thanks for that!
So, I would have loved to see the look on that cfs employee when you said “if God wants us to have that boy, there’s nothing you can do about it.” lol!! wow. 🙂