Pastor Jeff Bass - VP Launch Service- Aug 23, 2009
Summary:
When the brooks in our lives seem to dry up what do we do? Most of us immediately wonder if we have missed the will of God when adverse circumstances come our way. However, we should at least do the following things.
In other words, we need to look to God first to see what He wants us to do next. When our brook dries up, it’s time to wait on the Lord rather than to make some quick, ill-advised decision. Our tendency is to fret and say, “Why is this happening to me? Where did I go wrong? What am I going to do now? Is God punishing me? We use our energy going over and over the problems but there is a better way which is to wait for a word from the Lord. Why? Because waiting produces patience and waiting renews our strength. Elijah waited until he heard a word from the Lord. Once the Word came to move, Elijah did not hesitate to do so.
When our brook dries up, we often become immobilized from taking any action because of fear and doubt which often causes us to be depressed. We fret and repeat our tale of woe to anyone who comes along and this keeps us from getting to our “Zarephath” once the word of the Lord comes. Oftentimes, we become paralyzed from doing anything that will help us and we sit and stew. Elijah had to “arise” and begin to step out in faith one step at a time. Even at this point he only had limited information to go on, but this word from the Lord was enough to get him started. What will help us in our “arising and going?” The answer is guidance and faith. We have the promise of the Lord’s guidance as we go and we also have been given the faith to believe that the Lord is with us. Elijah didn’t have a complete plan, but he knew he was to arise and go to Zarephath. Had not the brook dried up he would have remained in his comfort zone. However, the word of the Lord came to him and it was enough guidance to get him started in the right direction.
The Lord won’t usually give us more direction until we pay attention to the first word. What are we doing about the first word He is telling us? If we are doing nothing, we will probably continue to sit by our dried up brook. If we don’t pay attention to the first word, why would we need the second word? We can be sure of God’s guidance because scripture says, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go; I will guide thee with mine eye.” (Psalm 32:8)
Sometimes we wait until we are 100% sure on things and we find we are still sitting by the brook. Elijah didn’t have 100% certainty, but he had a word from the Lord in order to get him to move away from the dried up brook. We must have enough faith in God and His word that when He says to “arise and go” that we go without delay and question.
He arose and went in spite of the circumstances and he did not let a dried up brook concern him. When our jobs dry up, when problems come, health breaks down, or any number of disasters in life comes our way, we can hear a word from the Lord and obey that word, moving on in our Christian experience.
Why are we so slow to obey the Lord at times? One reason may be fear of the unknown. Perhaps this fear stems from not knowing the Lord well enough to have complete confidence in His ability to take care of us and to guide us. We think that God is trying to “punish us.” The truth is that “God is not out to get us.”
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Another reason we are slow to obey the Lord is because we would rather do our own thing but often our thing and our way is in direct conflict with God’s way. Elijah arose and went to Zaraphath and he obeyed the word of the Lord quickly. Until we obey at the first directive, we can’t move on to the next. Additional information comes as we move out in faith. This is exactly what happened in Elijah’s situation. He could have dried up down there by that brook had he not obeyed the word of the Lord and acted upon that limited information he received. We need to be quick to obey the directions of the Lord and we shall be blessed.
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