What’s happening here? Elijah experienced a huge letdown. Even more, he experienced it in the midst of being faithful. He was wondering what he did wrong and if he was the person that he thought he was, if he was the right person for the job. Perhaps he thought to himself, “I did something wrong; it is my fault,” or, “I have been let down by God.”
Tag: Faith
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ Consolation and Desolation: Old Wisdom for Tired Protestants
Simply put, “For Ignatius, the ebb and flow of consolation and desolation is the normal path of the Christian life.” There will be times of consolation – when there is a sense of noticeable, personally experienced growth or blossoming, when God’s presence seems close and the means of grace seem easy and quick at hand. There will also be times of desolation – similar to the “dark night of the soul” – when, whether from wrongdoing, or attacks of the enemy, or times of struggle or challenge, God’s presence seems distant or even simply absent, when our growth seems stalled or the habits that sustain us feel unusually heavy.
Andy Stoddard ~ From the Storm to the Shipwreck
“You are not yet who you will be.
You are still on a journey. Your trip is not complete. There is work left to do in your life. There is work that God still has to do with you and through you. As long as you are still breathing and living, God is still at work on you.”
Michelle Bauer ~ What It Means to Be Rooted and Established in God’s Love
“God’s strength becomes available to us when we are rooted and established in his love. In what other things are you tempted to root yourself? What in your life makes you feel secure and established?”
Aaron Duvall ~ The Heat of Opposition
Are you ready to create the habit of depending on God, whatever the circumstance?
Aaron Perry ~ A Grief in Birth
I am now learning to grieve. And my Dad isn’t here to teach me. C.S. Lewis noted after the death of his wife that he didn’t know grief felt so much like fear. The fear I have is that I won’t grieve – or that I won’t grieve well. I have had my tears, but what is grief supposed to look like? How will I know I’ve grieved?
Kevin Watson ~ On Pragmatism, Integrity, and Faith
The Rev. Dr. Kevin M. Watson delivers his sermon in the William R. Cannon Chapel at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, on…
Edgar Bazan ~ The Rest of God
I believe that God wants us to enjoy our everyday lives. John 10:10 says that Jesus came to us so we may have and enjoy…
Otis T. McMillan ~ Faith, Defeat, & Expectation
True faith is demonstrated with obedience: what you cannot see, God does. "And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten…
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ The Will to Prepare the Way
Any Christian who wants to appear pious knows that he or she should want God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Few people want to scrub a toilet, wipe down its exterior, and clean the floor surrounding it. But you cannot separate faith from works.
In other words, the will to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is not nearly as important as the will to ask God how we might help bring about God’s will to be done on earth today in our home and town and nation.