Bible Study Tuesdays: 1 Kings: 19
This is a study I went to a few weeks ago with a few of my friends from church. My friend Lanai headed the study (and did an awesome job I might add ;D) It was about the story of Elijah in the book of 1Kings in the old testament in chapter 19. As we start to delve into this study we see that a man named Ahab tells Jezebel all that Elijah had done. (Just in the previous chapter Elijah made fire fall down from the sky and showed that his God was greater). As we continue to read we now see that Elijah is scared in chapter 19. Why? He had just seen the glory of God, yet here he was shaking in his sandals because some women (Jezebel) threatened his life. In his fear he journeyed into the wilderness and even prayed to God asking to take his life! For he didn't feel worthy enough to carry out God's plan (as shown at the end of verse four ''enough! Take my life; for I am no better than my father!''
{That stood out to me because I also have seen the Glory of God (No, not fire from the sky but in other more intimate ways) but yet just that same morning of the bible study I had prayed the almost same prayer! I was yelling at God telling him "enough! I can't do this anymore!" I was tired of the everyday struggle and grind of life and wanted to rest. What I should of said was more along the lines of ‘’I don’t want to do this anymore!” I’m not trying to sound morbid here but for me and many other Christians there is nothing greater than to go home to be with God. There’s no greater hope than the hope we have in the Lord. (Psalms 130:5).
So going to back to how Elijah had just seen the glory of God in his life (Chapter 18), yet here he was running and whining to God. Much like how I did the morning of the bible study. As humans (In our weakness) we get tired and whine to God about how bad we have it....like he needs any help..ha! We tend to focus on all that we ‘’think’’ we’re missing instead of focusing on all that we have. We tend to notice the half empty cup as opposed to it half full. This is not to say that we should not come to him when we are scared, or tired, or whatever the case me be. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that we should go to God with our needs, and wants, our fears, our joy, our everything and be sensitive to what he tells us when we do. Much like how we see in verse five. We see that Elijah had fallen asleep under a tree and the Lord sent an angel to wake him up and said "Arise and Eat'' and when he woke he saw that there was a baked cake and a drink. He ate it as the angel had advised but then fell asleep again.
Now, if we think about this; symbolically we can see this as our walk with God. We "eat" and fill ourselves with the word of God but if we're not careful we can fall asleep and don't continue to walk on our journey with God. When ''fall sleep'', we tend to stay in the same place. Now why is this something that happens? Most of us think that Lack of intimacy can lead us here (which it can) but this is not always the case. Much like how it happened to Elijah in verse four. We can see that he is intimate with God yet he ''eats'' and then falls asleep.
What can cause us to "Fall asleep"?
There are several things that can cause us to ‘’fall asleep’’. Lanai pointed something out that God had reveled to her and that was that Elijah was depressed. When I read it fear stood out to me but not depression. It wasn’t until I reread it that both of those things then stood out! You can see that he was asking God to take his life! He could take it no longer. How sad, or tired, or weary, OR SLEEPY must a person be to ask God to do this? In my personal experience…very!
(I’m coming to my point I promise…so stay with me people first let’s take a look at what Passion and Apathy are)
The definition of Passion is: Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. A strong or extravagate fondness, enthusiasm or desire for anything, an outburst of strong emotion, fervor, zeal, ardor.
The definition of Apathy is: A state of indifference, or suppression of emotions, such as concern, excitement, or motivation.
As you can see Apathy is the Opposite if Passion. When we get to a ‘’sleepy’’ or tired state in our walk with the Lord we have to analyze and see if we’ve become apathetic in spiritual life. In other words we have to step back and look to see if we’ve become indifferent or even comfortable with our Christianity.
There are several things that can lead to “falling asleep”
-Fear
-Depression
-Insecurity
-Doubt
-Becoming comfortable in your current state of being
If you notice these are all tools that the enemy can use (if we are not ‘’awake and alert’’) to lead us to have a lack of passion for Christ and if we stay in that stagnant state long enough we will eventually step away from God completely. I heard somewhere once that ‘’People do not ‘’fall’’ away from God; they walk away one step at a time’’
So, how can one "wake" up?
We must hear and recognize the ‘’alarms’’ going off and desire to wake up. A good Example of this is when our literal alarms go off and we know it’s time to get/wake up but we hit the snooze button and don’t so we fall asleep again.
We must recognize those little internal battles (Red flags/Alarms/whatever you want to call them) of ‘’I should pray but, I’m not in the mood’’ or I should read my bible but I would rather watch TV, ETC. We must learn to discipline ourselves to recognize when it’s time to wake up by being sensitive to the alarms the Holy Spirit sets off in us. Much like how Elijah’s ‘’alarm’’ was an angel the Lord sent to wake him.
Now, once we’re ‘’Awake” How do we ''Stay Awake"?
We must eat get prepared for the journey. Much like how Elijah did (after two tries, but he finally got going) he woke up ate and drank (1Kings 19: 1-8) He Got up and got prepared. For the angel told him the journey was ‘’far too great’’ In other words if he wanted to reach the end (which that is our ultimate goal). We must not only ‘’wake up’’ but ‘’eat” to stay strong even when we don’t ‘’feel’’ like it. One way is to look at it as though we were trying to eat healthy. We know that it’s good for us but we’d rather eat junk food. We know that to be healthy we must eat the healthy stuff so that we can become strong. It’s just like eating your vegetables. You don’t always want to or ‘’feel’’ like it but you know you should. Those are the crucial moments in our everyday life that add up to a bigger picture in the end. We must first recognize what we need over what we want and go for that and eventually with God’s help we will begin to realize that the more we feed ourselves the good stuff the more you will start to crave it. It will develop into a passion for God.
We must prepare ourselves for the great journey God has placed us on and not get discouraged when we fall down and fail or grow tired (Which we will). We must use the strength that Christ has put in us to not get discouraged and Always be aware that our Walk with God is a vast and great Journey that He is walking with us the whole way through. Just call and He will answer. It’s not about how many times you fall (asleep), but about how many times you choose get (wake) up.
