🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
So he (Elijah) got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him strength to travel for 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. 1 Kings 19:8
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
After Jezebel’s death sentence for Elijah is issued, he flees 100 miles South to Beersheba. With each pounding step of the way, Elijah has this one recurring thought: Why me? When he finally gets to Beersheba, he collapses and breaks down. Elijah the prophet, is a broken man.
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Enduring crisis.
Elijah has this initial vision of redemption where God triumphs on Mt. Carmel as the God of fire, and ends the famine as the God of rain. Instead, Elijah faces disillusionment as a fugitive and feels like a failure. The win doesn’t feel like a win now. But more like a loss. Spiritual wounds puncture like no other.
At some point in our lives, many of us find ourselves at a Beersheba. A place where we are despondent and in distress, with the weight of a mountain of unmet expectations weighing down on us. Three years of hiding in the middle of nowhere waiting for God to reveal his glory to all of Israel, King Ahab, and Queen Jezebel, and to have them admit the impotency of Baal. All for nothing, so it seems.
What do we do when we arrive at a Beersheba? Do we make it our permanent home, raise our family, and plant crops there? No. We emulate what the angel of God urges Elijah to do: Get rest and recoup. Gather yourself and go.
Oppression occurs at a Beersheba. It is a location of self-doubt and self-defeat. Satan will wreck havoc and hopelessness at your Beersheba, as he does with Elijah. This faithful man of God wants to die? This is nothing short of an attack from the enemy to dispirit and dishearten Elijah. When you are at your Beersheba, Satan will assault your vision to make God’s victory insignificant and your problem gigantic-ant.
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Experiencing Christ.
Yet for every Beersheba, God is not finished with your story. For every Beersheba, God divinely provides a Mount Sinai, a mountain of God. Where you can come, encounter truth and experience God. All. Over. Again.
Elijah, revived by the food and water given by the angel of God, departs Beersheba immediately. Does Elijah linger there for a several days? No. Delays at your Beersheba opens more windows of opportunities for Satan’s arrows to further pierce.
Forty days and forty nights later, he arrives at God’s destination for him, the mountain of God, Mt. Sinai. There, God waits for Elijah. In a cave, off a cleft of the rugged mountain, God reveals His rugged glory:
God brings a fearsome windstorm. Are you there, God? No.
God brings a fiery earthquake. Are you there, God? No.
God brings a fervent fire. Are you there, God? No.
God brings a faint whisper. Are you there, God? Yes, I am.
Leave your Beersheba and lean into your mountain of God. God has a word for you there. Beloved, I have not forgotten you. I am for you. I am with you. The redemption you seek is not in people, purposes, or plans, but in Me.
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Expanding courage.
At Mount Sinai, God reveals that He is still God. He is present and He brings peace. God can be in all places, in storms, quakes, or fires, but He wants to be in a relationship with you most.
In your enduring crisis, experience Christ. Expand your courage by trusting Him to guide you from fear to faith again. In your worst Beersheba, God is still in control. Follow the Real Truth from your Beersheba to the mountain of God.
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