Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

“It was three years later that the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go and tell King Ahab that I will soon send rain again!’…So Elijah went to tell him. Meanwhile the famine had become very severe in Samaria…
Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go and enjoy a good meal! For I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!’ So Ahab prepared a feast. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and got down on his knees, with his face between his knees, and said to his servant, ‘Go and look out toward the sea.’ He did, but returned to Elijah and told him, ‘I didn’t see anything.’ 
Then Elijah told him, “Go again, and again, and again, seven times!”
Finally, the seventh time, his servant told him, ‘I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.’ And sure enough, the sky was soon black with clouds, and a heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm…and the Lord gave special strength to Elijah…”      
I Kings 18: 1-2, 41-46 (TLB)

There had been a drought in Israel for three and one-half years. The people were suffering. Then God came to Elijah and promised him that He would send rain and told Elijah to tell King Ahab. 

Like all promises of God—they are there for us to claim. 

So, Elijah, and his young servant, climbed to the top of Mount Carmel. Elijah fell on his knees, put his face between his knees, and began to pray for rain. 

And while he prayed, he looked for it to come. It was a promise of God that he expected and believed to come. As Elijah prayed, six times he told his servant to go look toward the sea, but yet, no sign of rain. 

Six times seemed reasonable, but since it was a promise of God, Elijah kept praying for the promise to come. He didn’t stop praying or believing in God’s promise of rain. 

I wonder what we would have done. Six times, and no rain yet. Come on. 

That’s our problem—we give up too soon. We stop praying, we stop believing in all that God can do. 

We allow the circumstances, voices, noise, problems around us to distract and cause us to forget who is above all that we are facing. The one who, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, will always work out everything for good. 

We worry about things our children, grandchildren and Godchildren have imposed on them to face, wishing others would always see and assure the beauty, purity and sacredness God placed within them. Finances remain a struggle. Relationships are on edge. National and world issues seem to have no end in sight. 

When did we begin to forget all the great things God has done and can do? When did we begin to falter in our faith in God doing the impossible? When did we stop looking for and seeking after His miracles?

When did we stop praying after the promises of God?

In his song, “Don’t Stop Praying,” Matthew West shares these words—

“What’s your impossible? Your ‘I need a miracle,’
What’s got you barely hanging by a single thread?
What looks so hopeless now? What weighs down your heart with doubt?
You beg for a breakthrough, but no sign of breakthrough yet.
When you’ve cried, and you’ve cried ’til your tears run dry.
The answer won’t come, and you don’t know why.
And you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time.
Don’t stop praying, don’t stop calling on Jesus’ name.
Keep on pounding on Heaven’s door, and let your knees wear out the floor.
Don’t stop believing…So, don’t stop praying…
No, don’t stop praying.”

When did we stop praying after the promise of God? 

When did we stop looking for what we want to happen, to happen. 

No rain—time to stop.

But not Elijah. Go again, a seventh time. He stood on the promise God had given him—rain. He could have quit anytime. 

No quit in him.

So, he would just pray until something happened—the promised rain!

Praying to the God of all creation.

Praying to the God who is faithful and more than able.

Any questions? 

In His Name–Scott

Be encouraged by this performance of “Don’t Stop Praying” by Matthew West.