Did God Forget You?

“The reward of good work is the greater work.” —from You’ll Get Through This by Max Lucado. 

Too often, we want the greater work without first doing the good work - the menial, unnoticed, tedious, or unglamorous. We want to matter, to make a difference, but we wrongly assume that those who are difference-makers are the ones who are seen, who make a big splash, or who, by the world’s standards, accomplish much and are successful.

Elijah is a character in the Bible known for his monumental showdown with King Ahab and the prophets of Ba’al on Mount Carmel.  (I Kings 18) But before this greater work, Elijah had a series of good works that developed his character, grew his trust in God, and demonstrated his willingness to obey and wait. Reading through this account, there are a few seemingly insignificant words that actually have much to teach us.

We first see Elijah in 1 Kings 17. When he prophesied to king Ahab. 

“Now, Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’”

Immediately after, the Lord tells him to: “‘Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine ….You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.’" God, however, doesn’t say how long he is to stay there. Even so, Elijah goes and stays until God tells him to do something else, and we do know that God was faithful to provide for him. “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” (verse 6)

The next part of the story begins rather vaguely with the words, “Some time later…” We don’t know how long Elijah was in the ravine, but it was long enough for “…the brook [to have] dried up because there had been no rain in the land.”

Waiting on God is no easy task. It can feel like we are actually being useless and that God has forgotten about us. But God doesn’t forget. There is purpose and reason to all that He does and says. We learn this from this story of Elijah.

Has God given you a direction that you have abandoned because it seems like He has just left you in a ravine? That He has forgotten you?

What would it look like in your life to go back to the last thing God directed you to do, be faithful there, and to wait for further instructions?