Dear Church Family – 

Gas is over $4.00 a gallon?  Yikes!  That can hit hard on the budget and the ripple effect can be scary.  But when we look to God….

I am always captivated by the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and pouring the water on the sacrifice in 1 Kings 18.  Leading up to the ‘big event’, in Chapter 17, Elijah is directed by God where to go to find food and water, as there is a drought in the land.  He was fed meat and bread daily by ravens, and had water from a brook.  When the brook dried up, the Lord directed him elsewhere and he had an amazing encounter with a widow, as God said he would.  When they met, she had nothing left but a small jar of flour to which she was going to make some bread, feed herself and her son and then die.  But God had other plans and provided for them miraculously.  In Chapter 18 comes the big test of whose god is God.  The prophets of Baal had their sacrifice all set and they all prayed for Baal to send fire.  Nothing.  “Pray louder”, Elijah mocks; “may he’s sleeping”.  Still nothing.  So Elijah sets up his sacrifice.  He sends for jugs of water to be poured on it.  Then more water, and finally a third time of dousing it all in water.  Then he prays, and God sends fire to burn up the sacrifice and all of the water too.  Then the people believed that God was God.  But the story doesn’t end there…. Elijah sends a servant to check for rain.  Nothing.  Sends him again.  Nothing.  Again.  Nothing.  The seventh time the servant returns and says there is a small cloud – soon after came the rains!  

Are you going through a rough time?  Are you listening to the news reporting scary things?  Is the enemy screaming fear into your ears?  (You will not have enough.  You will be homeless.  You will lose everything.  You will die.  God doesn’t care.)  The enemy is such a liar!  From what I see in this story, He is the One True God.  When we live for Him; when we listen and obey His Spirit, He will show us the way to whatever we need that He has provided, and we will see Him do marvelous things, which will lead others to Christ in the process!  It will take faith.  It will take courage.  It may even take all you’ve got in you – but God is faithful.  Keep looking for the answer – once, twice, or even seven times.  God’s promises always come at the right time.  He is Truth and cannot lie!