God asks Elijah a question: What Are You Doing Here? Pushing past the centuries you and I ask, "Do we see ourselves in the story?"

Exhilarating Faith

God, Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel draw us into this drama in I Kings 18 and 19. 19:10-22. After a supernatural occurrence in chapter 18, where Elijah demonstrates heroic, victorious faith on Mount Carmel, he flees in fear to the desert and prays that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord…Take my life.” Gripped with fear, his faith melts, and he falls asleep.

Extraordinary Grace

Within the narrative, we see the tender grace of God displayed as He supernaturally provides food and water in the midst of the desert to meet Elijah's physical needs. (The ministry of food and sleep are real in the life of a child of God. Sometimes all we need is a nourishing meal and a restorative night’s sleep.)

Moving on…

From the Desert to the Cave

With more sleep and the second helping, so to speak, Elijah journeys forty days—forty days farther away from his enemies Jezebel and Ahab—and into a cave where he spends the night.

Then comes the question: What are you doing here, Elijah? God pursues His servant and poses the inquiry because Elijah is not where God wants him to be.

Bring this forward to our own lives…

If honest, you and I must admit that, yes, we do see ourselves in the story. I suggest that within each of us resides an Elijah:

Fear and fatigue contaminate our perspective of our situation.

Fear and fatigue drive us to places we should not go.

Fear and fatigue alter our perspective of God.

And yet, Elijah’s God is our God as well, and He meets us wherever we are. In a desert of discouragement and despair, or in a cave of fear, chaos and confusion, God joins us.

But the game changer is our response.

We are given the choice to stay where we are or to listen to the Voice of God and go back. When I acknowledge that I am not where God wants me to be—in a relationship, a pastime, a purchase, a perspective, a financial decision, or even a habit—I need to choose to go back to the center of God’s will, and under the protection of His Wings.

Elijah had to answer God's direct question with intentional action. So do we.

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

Questions we find in Scripture arrest my attention.