What Does It Take To Get God To Act?

My wife and I were discussing a life situation we were struggling with lately and a common question came up.  It was, to paraphrase it in general, “How do we know we’re doing the right things to get God to act in our lives?”  To put it another way, “How do we know we’re in God’s will?” or again, “am I doing the right things in relationship to God?”  This question takes many forms but it all boils down to the same thing.  When we desire God’s direct work in our life situations, or seek a specific answer to prayer, what does it take to bring that about?  Is there something I’m not doing that He wants me to do?  Is there something I’m doing that is preventing His work in my life.  These last two questions are not wrong to ask ourselves and God.  There may actually be something that is preventing God’s work.  If there is, God does not hide that from us, He usually lets us know pretty clearly when we ask.  It is up to us to be faithful to act on these convictions.  But, what if there is no word of conviction one way or another from God and it seems He is still distant, or our desires and even needs seem unmet and our prayers unanswered?

When this question came up, I smuggling and half jokingly said there is an answer to the bottom line here, and I pointed to Ecclesiastes 12:13

      Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
    Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.

To paraphrase this in New Testament language, “the bottom line is:  Love God and do His will.”

The “Preacher”, the writer of Ecclesiastes, which we take to be Solomon, had spent the whole book going over his search for ultimate meaning in life.  He chronicles all of the things he has pursued with the conclusion that all but this one thing is vanity and chasing the wind.  Jesus reflected this bottom line in His teachings and His life.

Our discussion went on from there because of the common question, “How do I know I am in God’s will?” or “How do I know I’m doing everything in God’s will?”  It was then that my mind went back to the Mount Carmel incident between Elijah’s God and Baal (I Kings 18).  As the story goes, a challenge had been posed to prove who the one true God was.  The challenge was to see which of the gods represented would send fire down from heaven to light an offering on the top of the mountain.  Elijah, being very confident, gave the prophets of Baal the home field advantage.  He let them go first and let them have first pick of the bulls to be offered.  So they set up their altar with the offering on it and started praying, then begging.  That didn’t do it, so they started dancing and crying louder.  That didn’t even do it, so they started cutting themselves with swords and spears until blood was freely flowing.  They did this for hours.  In fact they did this starting in the morning, through noon, until evening with no results. 

When I look at the cutting themselves part, I am reminded of a song by the Rolling Stones, “I Know It’s Only Rock and (But I Like It)”.  This song is a slam at all of the stage theatrics that were going on in pop/rock music at the time.  Some of the lines are, “If I could stick my pen in my heart
and spill it all over the stage,” and “If I could stick a knife in my heart, suicide on the stage.”  Then the question is posed, “Would it satisfy you?”

The question, what does it take to satisfy God?  The prophets of Baal served a false god.  Baal was an idol made by man out of their own imagination—an idol which supposedly had power, but had to be appeased with any number of hoops to jump through to get him to work.  With such an idol there was a progression of antics that the follower had to go through to gain favor and produce action by this god.  As in the Mount Carmel incident, it started with prayer.  On that day, prayer obviously wasn’t enough, so they went on to more fervent prayer and shouting.  Not good enough today, so dancing was in order.  Dancing usually did it, but obviously Baal was not so easily pleased today.  That left only the final resort which meant cutting themselves.  From the narrative it can be conjectured that the cutting started small, but we see that it progressed until blood was freely flowing from the wounds.  I am sure the prophets of Baal were asking themselves and their god, what does it take to get you to do this one thing?

Elijah had a little fun with them while this was all going on.  He taunted them, “maybe he can’t hear you,” or “maybe he’s just busy,” “maybe he’s deep in thought, or asleep.”  Elijah actually went so far as to say, “maybe he’s in the bathroom.”  Sure this sounds funny, but it shows us a great contrast between a god conceived by man and the one true God of the universe.  The psalmist tells us many times that our God has none of these anthropomorphic qualities or limitations.

After their failed efforts, we know that Elijah built the altar and even flooded it with water.  He then prayed once and the fire fell from heaven, burning up the sacrifice, the wood and even the stones of the altar, the water and even the dirt around it.

I look at this story and have to remember that my God, our God is not an idol who is fickle, or so caught up in himself that he would toy with us humans.  He doesn’t have the human failings, quirks, shallowness, or frailties that an idol like Baal was seen to have.  Our God is all powerful.  Our God is ultimately and constantly attentive.  Our God is love.  We don’t have to bargain with Him, dicker with Him, manipulate Him, and the only way we can appease Him is to love Him and trustingly follow Him.

So what can we say about the times when it seems God is far away, or He has reserved or withheld His activity and working in our lives.  God didn’t always answer Elijah’s prayers immediately.  In fact, right after the altar incident on Mount Carmel, Elijah prayed for rain.  This whole incident had come at the culmination of a three year draught which started when Elijah had prayed that it stop raining because of the sins of Ahab and Jezebel and the nation following after Baal.  God, before this showdown had promised to give rain again, so after the great victory, Elijah faithfully prayed for rain.  He prayed once and sent his servant to look for signs of rain.  The servant brought back a disappointing report, "nothing.  Not even one tiny cloud."  The was repeated a total of six times with the same disappointing results.  It was not until the seventh time (I won’t go into numerology at this time) that Elijah prayed and his servant brought back the report that there was a tiny cloud, “as small as a man’s hand, rising from the sea.”  Wow, seven times of praying for something that God had already promised, and the result was a tiny cloud no bigger than a man’s hand?

Sometimes it works like the altar incident, but sometimes it works like the cloud incident.  What we don’t see is Elijah begging, wailing, dancing and cutting himself.  We see him simply continuing to pray in faith.  I believe he would have continued praying in faith, trusting God to work as He had said.  Why didn’t it come on the first prayer?  Was God hard of hearing, or in deep thought, or involved in something else at the time?  Was Elijah not doing something right, or not doing enough?  No.  We don’t know why it didn’t happen immediately this time.  What we know is that faithful prayer of a believer does bring about the work of a God who is the one true God and is faithful and always at work in our lives even when we don’t see it. 

What about the timing, though?  I can't say much, but God's timing, though often undiscerned by us is usually the right timing (tongue in cheek, of course).  Refer to the seven times of praying for support in this area.  I know, I said I wouldn't go into the numerology, but I couldn't help myself.

I know it’s only faith and prayer, but God likes it.

I Don't Need Rest! Do I?

I got a chance to rest recently.  I needed it.  I have been feeling like I’m teetering on the edge of burn out.  I could tell because any time I would run into a situation that I could normally handle with determination and minimal stress, I would, instead react with panic, fear, and emotional duress.  What brought it about was a combination of a number of things, many totally out of my control, but some I had put on myself or accepted not knowing the pressure they would add to me and my emotional/physical being.  They included extra responsibilities in different areas that I saw as good and had accepted for myself, some were even ministry opportunities.  Some were personal projects stacked one upon the other, that I truly wanted to do, however not realizing the stress and pressure that always accompany such endeavors.  Anyway, I had come to realize that I really needed some rest.

Getting rest was not that simple, however.  I had used up my available time off from work, due to slow business and taking care of my Father.  I didn’t think I could afford unpaid time off due to my wife still being unemployed.  So, there I was, feeling really in need of rest, but stuck in not seeing a way I could accomplish it… then I got it.  During the week of July 4^th, work was so slow that I had absolutely nothing to do.  The boss had hinted at us taking time off during the holiday week, but again, I had no available vacation, but I volunteered to take it off anyway.  I did so for two reasons; one, as I said, I needed it, and two, I had been impressed by an Old Testament story of a guy who got rest and replenishment when he didn’t expect it or even know he needed it.

I Kings 19

 ¹Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

³ Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

⁷ The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. ⁹ There he went into a cave and spent the night.

I have read this account many times.  I’m sure I’ve preached on it more than once.  It’s funny how we look at Elijah in this account.  We wonder how “did he end up here?”  He had just come from one of the greatest showings of God’s power to mankind; the fire from heaven burning up the sacrifice, the wood, the water, and even the stones of the altar in the face of the failing prophets of Baal.  Instead of riding high on the glory of that great spiritual victory, we see Elijah running for his life.  The man who so strongly believed in God’s power somehow lost his nerve at the threats of Jezebel.  The faith and trust that brought the fire down from heaven in the presence of an adversarial mob was now, not strong enough to stand up to one angry queen. 

I will deal with the whys and the wherefores of this in another writing, but for now let’s just look at the account and how it unfolds.  For whatever reason, one of God’s most faithful finds himself beat down, bedraggled, and in the dumps.  Man, was he in the dumps.  He ran for his life and was trying to commit suicide.  Some may not realize it, but Elijah was trying to commit the equivalent of what I would call Hebrew suicide.  He ran to the wilderness, left his servant and went a full day’s journey deeper into the wilderness, whined a lot and laid down to die.  He didn’t take his own life per se, but put himself in a situation where his life would be drained from him with no food, no water, and no one to save him.  As he did this he cried a prayer of despair which basically put the responsibility of his actions on the Lord.

If Elijah had died, would it have been the work of the Lord as he had asked?  “Oh, well, God let me die so it must be on His hands.”  Duh!  Elijah had put himself into a situation akin to a modern day person taking a load of pills and asking the Lord to take his life.  God, in this situation, really had nothing to do with his hope for death.  If I were God, which I definitely am not, I would be saying, “Don’t you put this on me.  You’re the one trying to kill yourself.”  Of course, I am not God and it’s probably a good thing.  God acts differently than I would in this case.

What does God do?  Does God get all up in his face and say something like, “And I thought you were a man of God.”  Or, “Get up you loser and get back to work.”  No, God realizes that Elijah was in no shape physically, emotionally, or spiritually to even face and/or hear from God at this time.  So, God does not judge him or deride him.  God does not even speak a Word to him.  God does something that seems out of character with the false god that many of us were raised with, God gives him rest, sustenance, and recovery.  God let him sleep and not willing to let him starve, gave him food.  I see this as God giving him recovery.

It seems obvious from the account that this is what Elijah needed.  He had spent much of his ministry butting heads with King Ahab and especially the one who wore the pants in that family, Queen Jezebel.  When a person is in a state of constant struggle and fight, it wears on them.  Elijah was definitely a hero of faith or he wouldn’t have continued to the point of the big clash on Mount Carmel, but Elijah wasn’t immune to exhaustion, physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  He shows that as he begs for release through death in the wilderness.  God knew his child and knew he needed recovery first and he gave it to him.

After recovery, Elijah needed more from God.  Recovery only brings us back to normal.  God knew Elijah needed more, so God gave him more.  God gave him more rest and more food because God was not done with Elijah or the ministry He would bring to His world through Elijah.  The Angel of the Lord who brought the food also brought a word, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 

Yes, the journey is too much for us sometimes.  The journey gets too much many times when we are trying to make the journey in our own strength or even not relying fully on God’s power and strength.  (I will deal with this in another writing in which I plan to deal with the I’s and You’s of the story.  It’s interesting to look at.)  The story goes that Elijah did get up and eat and drink and with the rest and the food given him, he made a forty day journey to meet the Lord, deliver his complaint, here God’s word, and have his call renewed and redefined. 

None of this was possible in his previous state.  There are times when we are so worn out and beat down and bedraggled by what we have been going through that we cannot serve God any more.  We get to a point to where all we can see is the forces and the obstacles against us.  We get to the point that we can’t even recognize God and we cannot hear a word from God.  At these times we too often despair.  God knows that and God knows what we need.  We need rest.  We need sustenance.  We need recovery.  We need building up.  We need strength.  And God is there to give it to His child.

I would advise any reader to hear this story from this light and ask yourself, am I worn out?  Am I beat down?  Am I running on empty?  Am I like Elijah and need rest, sustenance, recovery, building back up and strength?  Let God, the loving Father give it to you.  Accept it from Him.  You may be of little use to Him until you do.