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Sunday, July 27, 2008

All the Wrong Places

It seems like it's really easy for us to get lost in our efforts to find God. Maybe we're too busy in our search to really find Him. Maybe we're just looking in the wrong places.

Right after Elijah enjoyed the mighty contest between the prophets of Baal and him, the lone prophet of God, he ran off into the desert because Jezebel threatened to kill him. Out in the desert he sat down under a tree and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers" (1 Kings 19:4). Well, God wasn't done with him yet, so he sent him off to Mount Horeb. In a cave there Elijah asked again for God to take his life. God told him to stand out on the mountain because the Lord was passing by. You remember the story. There was a powerful wind strong enough to break rocks ... but God wasn't in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake. There was a fire, but God wasn't in the fire. Then there was a gentle breeze, and that's where Elijah found God's voice (1 Kings 19:9-14).

It seems as if we're constantly in some sort of crisis. Maybe it's not wind or an earthquake, but we're certainly in a lot of noise. Maybe it's work or maybe it's home or maybe, just maybe, it's church. We think that we're going to find God there, but we're not. Instead, we will mostly likely find God the same way that the psalmist did: "Be still (Cease striving) and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psa. 46:10).

Maybe, just maybe, part of the reason that God commands a day of rest is exactly that. We need to cease striving, to be still, to quiet our mighty efforts and endless noise and just ... listen ... to ... His ... voice. Shhhh!

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