As we cast our eye over it, we observe that what Elijah needed to be taught was (1) dependence on God; (2) fellowship with man in his sufferings; (3) confidence in God’s plans ; and (4) a sense of their essential and broad mercifulness. Warfield, B. B. (2013-11-13). Faith & Life (Kindle Locations 66-67). GLH Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Warfield beautifully explains the curriculum of God’s school as it can be applied to Elijah and to ourselves. Though I encourage to get and read the book Faith and Life by Warfield I’d like to sent some time reflecting of the four things God was teaching Elijah as they might be applied to our lives.
Keep in mind that Warfield has explained the as far as we can tell from the record, Elijah was in a grueling course of “on the job training,” He was learning as he went and the key thing to remember is the he “went.” That is fundamental if not essential for all of us to understand. “Following,” is the key to discipleship. Not observing the Master, not evaluating the Master but following the Master is the key. We will be taught when we need to be and as we need to be. That is the promise we find again and again in the lives of God’s people in the Word.
The fist lesson, and the lesson that if not learned nullifies all the others is, I think, two fold. First we must learn that God is dependable and second we much learn to depend upon Him. Neither lesson is easy to truly learn.
Certainly we can see in the evidence of the Word that God has demonstrated His dependability. But for many of us it is a dependability that is abstract. We see that He is dependable in the lives of others but that’s no guarantee we will really see Him as dependable in our own lives. It a tough thing to go from seeing God’s faithfulness to Israel to seeing His faithfulness to us - to ME.
One reason I think we struggle so much with that old, “I know He is faithful, but...” is that we are so very used to considering faithfulness in terms f big things that we miss the commonness of His faithfulness. He is “commonly” faithful is so may mundane way that are so easy for us to ignore. It is in the really tough times when we discover both His faithfulness and our tottering dependence upon Him.
“God is dependable and I depend upon Him,’ is a great statement but really, ask yourself, how TRUE is that statement in your mind and heart? Do you really believe that He is dependable? Are you willing to surrender your plans, ideas, schemes, etc., and yield to His providence in all things?
I know I thought I was but I learned real quick how flighty my faith - my dependence - my trust in Him was. The past year and a half have taught me just how unreasonable, prideful and self-absorbed my dependence upon Him was (and still is to some extent). Nothing in the past year and a half has gone according to our plan and yet as we look back we can see that it certainly has gone according to someone’s plan - we of course assume it was His plan.
We have learned to calmly suffer chaos and confusion because we have see Him provide and direct in the midst of the chaos. He didn’t make the chaos go away He simply acted within it to bring about blessings and peace.
So how do we grow in our dependence upon Him - upon the conviction that he is dependable?
Ahhh, well that’s for the future - we’ll get to it next.
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