What To Do When The Brook Dries Up

It does not matter:

• If a person is rich or poor

• What country a person lives in?

• What family a person belongs to?

NO ONE IS EXEMPT FROM THE SORROWS OF LIFE.

Why is it important that we realize that!!!

Illus: It is important because it makes me think of a young lady that was dating a young fellow. When she met him he appeared to be the ideal young man for her to marry.

Before he married her…

• He would attend church with her.

• He would open the car door for her to get in the car.

• He was good to her in every way a young man could be.

She really thought he would make her a good husband and if she married him she could live happily ever after.

• But shortly after he married her he would no longer go to church with her.

• He would no longer open the door for her

• He was no longer good to her.

After a year of being married to this fellow she realized he had tricked her into marrying her. SHE BECAME VERY DISCOUARGED!

Started taking drugs to cope with his abuse!!!

Now it is important for Christians to realize in the Christian to realize, the Christian life consists of GOOD TIMES and BAD TIMES!

If we do not realize this when the bad times come we can get AWFUL DISCOURAGED because we thought once we accepted Christ, the Christian life LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!

When all of us Christians go to be with the Lord, we then will enjoy the perfect life. But until then we can expect our share of problems in this life!

1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

HOWEVER, HAVE YOU NOTICED, some folks seem to receive more than their share?

Job CERTAINLY MUST HAVE FELT THIS WAY ABOUT HIMSLEF.

He said, in Job 14:1, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”

As we read through the Scriptures, we discover that all of God’s choice servants faced the same kinds of problems in their lives as we do in ours.

For example, in the life of Elijah, the great prophet of God, we see he faced some of the same kinds of problems we face.

But during this time, when he faced crisis after crisis, God took care of him and fed him.

God chose to take care of Him during this time by using two things:

• A stream (Brook)

• A widow woman

• Ravens to feed him

God used a stream to provide for him, but one day Elijah looked at the brook, and discovered it was drying up.

I can just imagine the astonishment on his face as he watches the flow of the brook becomes a trickle one day, and eventually the day comes where the trickle turns to a dry creek bed. NO MORE WATER!

If Elijah had been like some today, he would have said, “Bad luck has set in!”

It has nothing to do with GOOD LUCK OR BAD LUCK!!!

Illus: Thinking about luck makes us think of the husband that had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months, yet his wife stayed by his bedside every single day.

When he came to, he motioned for her to come nearer.

As she sat by him, he said, "You know what?

• You have been with me all through the bad times

• When I got fired, you were there to support me

• When my business failed, you were there

• When I got shot, you were by my side

• When we lost the house, you gave me support

• When my health started failing, you were still by my side

When I think about it now! I think you bring me bad luck."

• But for Christians, LUCK is not what determines our destiny.

• The sovereign God of heaven determines our destiny.

However, that which God had used to sustain Elijah initially was no longer there.

What would Elijah do now?

God had already made provision for him to be fed by the widow woman in Zarephath to supply his needs.

Look at 1 Kings 17:1-9, we read, “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordanl. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”