Devotionals Detail

1 Kings 19:1-18

Elijah was on a trajectory of a career. He was the prophet who could call on the name of God, and fire descend from the sky. To say the least – he had a reputation as one of Israel’s prophetic G.O.A.Ts. He was so well known that his prophetic mission to destroy all of the followers of Baal had landed him a name that Queen Jezebel wanted to destroy. She had it out for him with revenge. Jezebel’s threats rock Elijah to his core, and are so disturbing, that they rob him of his faith (1 Kings 19:2). He is discouraged to the point of asking God to take his life, and wanting to give up his prophetic call. After being visited by an angel who gives him food and drink to nourish him, he travels over the course of 40 days to Mount Horeb. In that place, God asks him “What are you going here, Elijah?” Elijah’s response is how zealously he has served the Lord, and now, his fear of his life being threatened. Elijah’s fear response gets the best of him. In fact, it overcomes him through this encounter with God. And so God relieves him of this responsibility of being a prophet.

It’s a hard text, but an important one, as each of us have a calling from God. To reflect on the question “Why are you here?” keeps us grounded in this foundational calling.

July 1 marked my 7th year of ministry appointed here at Flower Mound UMC. It is my 29th year of ministry serving the United Methodist Church, and over the many years of serving 5 different churches throughout the DFW Metroplex, I have asked myself this question many times. Why am I here? What is the purpose God has for me? Am I listening to God’s voice of a call, or my own? Have my fears of not being successful, or my concerns of what others say about me, or my worries of not being enough hindering me from hearing that voice of God? And truth be told, there are many times they have.

Sometimes, like Elijah those trajectories of our career or our expectations of life can become so all-encompassing that we lose sight of God’s call in them. We become focused on the completion of a project to the point where that becomes the mission. We become emboldened by success in numbers so that it identifies what we understand purpose to be. We become wrapped up in the fears of – what happens if we lose all that we have built ourselves up to become?

So Elijah’s story reminds us of the importance of listening deeply to that question. For Elijah’s heart and body are so tired that he can no longer be a prophet. God sees how he is not impacted by the experience of God’s presence and relieves him of this prophetic task. God recognizes he needs a new trajectory.

Our lives take different trajectories through time, and the reality of Elijah’s story is that God met him in each iteration of them. But the encouragement for each of us, no matter what

phase of life we are in is to ask “Why am I here?” And to ensure that the fears, anxieties and concerns of what is happening when we are there, do not allow us to forget the why. For God has a purpose for you in each moment – beyond what is happening to you in that moment - just remember your why.