Phony facelifts!
1 King 18:42”Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.”
Just after a magnificent, stupendous and glorious crusade, where God manifests Himself in a mighty way and proves His power on mount Carmel through His powerful servant Elijah, the way of the Christian circle today would be to upload umpteen photos of the marvelous event and proclaim ‘ lakhs of people’ attended the Prayer Festival; however, Elijah differs here! Being like the rest makes you normal but when you go the extra mile for God, you become extraordinary and unique! After God answered Elijah with fire from heaven and exalted him in front of all the Israelites, king Ahab and the false prophets of Baal; yet, we see Elijah gearing up for the next event! Way to Go! This message is not for ‘status quo people, lazy people or people who love to live a mediocre life’, I here speak to people who would love to usurp to the next level for God! Are you listening?
With faith, Elijah told Ahab, ‘go eat and drink,’ when Ahab went up to eat and to drink, Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel to pray! I love this! Friend, to be very honest, after tasting the tangible presence of God and honored before a huge crowd, it sure makes you feel confident and you tend to take it easy! Are you listening? Very rarely, you go for another session of hard prayer! You look for vacation! That’s the trend today! We live in an era of vacation, holidays and weekend bashes; is there anybody there who would want to climb Mount Carmel to pray again. Hear this, pray again and again!
Friend, during this summer holidays, when our Abide School children enjoyed their holidays, I was not able to take a single day off. Just after our school closed we had our big event ie., three days AIC Camp and after the camp, while I planned to take a day off and rest, we received a call from the Education Office to visit them immediately. Monday morning after visiting the officer, submitting the required papers, on my way back home in the afternoon, I collapsed in the car – depleted and drained out. Then followed a series of other important stuff that required lot of attention and prayers; thereby we had no holidays and I am back again to school. Remember, if you desire more, you got to invest more!
There was no time for Elijah to eat and drink, besides he did not take the last victory for granted but he pressed forward for more from God. Are you listening? Are you desiring for more victories, accolades, trophies and not satisfied with the present achievements, then it is time to go on your knees before God. I’m talking about receiving your blessings from God and not from your own strength, are you there?
Elijah just did not pray for rain but he had the audacity to command his servant to ‘Go up now, look toward the sea!’ Elijah expected rain and looked for rain! How is your prayer? Friend, lets live powerful life like prophet Elijah depending upon God rather than being proudly self-sufficient! When personal relationship with God should be our priority, we focus on phony facelifts! Pleasures of this world, pomp, fame and popularity are all PHONY! All that matters is your life in CHRIST!
Spurgeon said (A Treasury of David [Baker] 1:50), “Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.”
