What Happens After The Victory...

Ever have a victory and then the bottom falls out of your heart for no reason? Or have you ever had God do something great in your life, then been scared out of your wits at the next step? Ever feel like you're the only one serving God?  

I'm willing to bet, you answered one of those questions with a yes. 

So, where is this headed today?  Well, no doubt if you've been in church for a day, you've heard the story of Elijah.  

Elijah was a prophet of God during a turbulent time. The King of Israel, Ahab was a sinful king who, who along with many other things, married a woman named Jezebel and began to worship her god, Baal.  Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria and according to 1 Kings 16, "did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the Kings of Israel before him."  Ahab was not a good dude, and neither was his wife.

Anyway, Elijah prophesies that there will be a great drought over the land, no doubt because of the terrible way that Ahab is ruling Israel.  Elijah then goes to a brook where he is fed by ravens.  He then moves on, when the brook dries up, as the Lord commanded him, to a widow who's son eventually dies and Elijah prays and God heals him.  

God then tells Elijah to go before the king, Ahab.  Meanwhile, Ahab's wife is killing off the prophets of God. Obadiah, who was the palace administrator, and a believer, had hidden away one hundred of the Lord's prophets in caves this whole time.

Obadiah then meets up with Elijah and soon informs Ahab that Elijah was back. So he does, then Ahab meets up with Elijah.  

At this point, Elijah basically puts Ahab on blast for all the wrongs he's committed and what his family has done on not following the commands of God.

Then Elijah issues a challenge to the prophets of Baal.  A bout between Yahweh, the God of Israel and Baal. Live from Mount Carmel.  

Long story short, the prophets of Baal do everything short of killing themselves, to get Baal to rain down fire on their sacrifice.  Elijah soaks his sacrifice in water and makes a water trench around it, then prays to God to rain down fire from Heaven. God does and Elijah then kills the over 500 prophets of Baal.

Ahab went home and told Jezebel all that had happened.  Jezebel then essentially places a bounty on Elijah's head.  

Elijah then runs away and begs for the Lord to take his life.  He was then fed by the Lord and traveled to a mountain called Horeb, which was the mountain of God.  Elijah then retreated into a cave for the night.

Elijah then has a miniature pity party for himself after God asked what he was doing.  He thinks he's the only one left, the only one who has been zealous for the Lord.  I can tell you, I've been there!  You feel like it's just you and God, sometimes you feel completely alone.

But right here, God shows Elijah something.

A mighty wind blew, but God was not in the wind.  Then there was an earthquake, God wasn't in that.  Then a fire, but God wasn't there.  Then a gentle whisper came and God was in the whisper and gave Elijah another chance to tell what is going on.  Yet again, Elijah has another pity party.

God then instructs Elijah on some men who are to be anointed as king, then who will be his successor as prophet.  God then makes a huge point to Elijah.

"Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him." 1 Kings 19:18

I feel like God is showing two things here. 

1) Even when we feel like everything is stacked against us, God has a plan.  There is nothing that surprises Him and He always cares for His children.  

2) No matter how bad it gets, no matter who walks away, God doesn't leave us!  He also has so many more like us as a part of His plan.  

There's not a need for us to sulk and have our own pity parties.  God has everything under control.  We may never see everything that's going to happen come to fruition, but we have to have faith that God will fulfill the promises He made to us.  

Just like He did for Abraham, who followed in faith.  He didn't see his descendants number the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore, but he still had faith.

When we win, but turn the corner to another disaster and we wonder where God went...

He's standing right there waiting.

The Struggle

"A lot of us are on the Potter's wheel right now and we're not comfortable, it doesn't feel good, but we need to take solace in the fact that even though it may not feel good right now, as long as I'm in his hands I know that everything is gonna be alright" -Marvin Sapp (intro to He Has His Hands On You)

I've got to say, this is not the easiest part of the Christian life.

The easy part is when everything is right, and you feel good.  The bad thing here is, when you're on the mountaintop you get a little high on yourself. At least, in my life, when everything is going well and I feel closer to God than I've ever felt, I start to feel like I put me there.  How ridiculous right? However, it happens. I made everything better, I did this and I did that, I've made the way for myself. When in actuality you could not be further from the truth! The truth is, HE made everything better, HE did this and HE did that, HE has made the way for me! 

In Matthew, Jesus talks about how much the Father cares for the life of a sparrow, then He tells us to not fear, that we are worth more than many sparrows.  What He has told us here is that even one the lowliest of birds ("Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?") is cared for by the Creator of the universe, that "not one of them will fall to the ground outside of the care of the Father," and if we are worth more than a bunch of sparrows, how much more does God care for us?  

When I struggle through things or have things on my mind, I tend to do many things. One thing I do with the most consistency is listen to music. Tonight, I had been struggling with something and so I pulled out my iPad and opened up YouTube.  One of the first videos on my suggestions was "Praise You In Advance" by Marvin Sapp. Well, of course, I clicked on it and since I knew the song I started to sing. (If you don't know, I love singing, that's different for a coach and I know that, but I enjoy it) That song has the line "Praise will confuse the enemy...", when you're going through a struggle, one thing is certain, God is in full control. Another thing that is most likely to happen is that Satan will surely try to trip you up.

When we are in a struggle, sometimes we are vulnerable.  The best thing Satan thinks he can do is attack a vulnerable Christian.  What throws him off his game is when we immediately lean in to the power of the Almighty God.  Whether Satan is coming after us with all he has, or he's taking advantage of a faith building moment God has laid out for us, he is coming and he's coming on strong. The best defense for that, is just to praise God in the midst of the struggle.  Is that easy? No way! As humans, we have some kind of innate hard-headed attitude.  I go through this type of scenario too many times.  The struggle appears, and all God is doing is holding His arms out begging me to fall into them, but I want  to push through on my own power.  So I ignore him, and stumble and fall.  He's still there, arms stretched wide, and waiting for me to fall into them. I get up, and keep pushing. 

I fall again. And again. And again.

It reminds me of the quote from Batman Begins.  Bruce Wayne gets freaked out by a bunch of bats and falls down a well. As his dad is lowering into the well to rescue him, he says, "And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up."

At the risk of coining some corny Christian phrase, I've learned, as Christians, we fall so we can learn that God wants to pick us up.  We can't do it. As I alluded to earlier, we, under our own power, are going to keep falling back and falling back.  The trick is going to be, when will you finally let God take control of whatever trial you are in.

As if you were sitting in the palm of His hand, just lean back against His fingers.

This is one of the things I am still learning on a daily basis. I did not orchestrate any part of my life: not Jennifer falling in love with me, not getting a job at Henderson ISD and working for and with the awesome people I do, and not any struggle I meet in life.  

It reminds me of the old coaching philosophy, if a coach isn't on you to be better, he's given up on you.  The best thing about God being our "coach" is that He will NEVER give up on you!

The fact of the matter is, God is in control , he always has been.  If we let Him do His work no matter what struggle your in.

TRUST HIM!