"Just a Whisper" (Part1)

There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah replied, "I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I alone am left, and now they are trying to kill me, too." "Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:9-12 NLV).

Someone has said, "Sometimes the Lord calms the storm. Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child." There is a great deal of truth to that. Very often what we really need is to be quiet before the Lord so that we can hear him speak the works that will calm our fears. The passage above recounts a time when one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament was so afraid that he begged God to take his life. Elijah felt alone and abandoned. He needed to hear from God. All of us have found ourselves in similar predicaments when our faith seemed to being failing us. The same “whisper” of God’s grace will come to us if we will just listen.

Before there were refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer. One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked him how he found it. "I closed the door," the boy replied, "lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking."

It really isn’t a matter of whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear. At various times in our lives we will face perplexing situations and fear provoking circumstances but we must remember that the Lord is not far from us and He will never fail to guide us. God will speak to us if we will get alone with Him and tune the rest of the world and its voices out. In the next few days we’ll look at some practical ways to get still enough to hear even God’s whisper. There are some things we can do to “tune” out the world that yells out toward us with its deafening roar. For today, just ask Him to reveal Himself to you giving you the wisdom to recognize Him in His appearance. Taking refuge under the scant shade of a broom tree, Elijah prayed for death. He, the mighty prophet, had stood for God as boldly as any of those who had gone before him. Yet here he was, alone and seemingly deserted in this desert wasteland, the very symbol of a wasted life. Yet God would tenderly nourish and lead his prophet to a place where he would get some much-needed instruction. He will do the same for you today!