The peace of sitting on top of a mountain and looking down is almost indescribable. As I look down, I can see every leaf that God’s hand has touched. The Palette that only the one True God could create. No Big Bang, no evolution, One True God. The detail is spectacular. If He can create such a beautiful leaf, think of the beauty He created in you! What we do with that beauty is our gift to Him.
Today look upon those mountains and think of all that went into them. Happy Sunday! ~ Log Home Mom đŸ’–
1 Kings 18:16–45
Mount Carmel
So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees… The servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’ (NIV)
The contrast between the prophet Elijah and King Ahab is stark. In utter rebellion against the God of Israel, Ahab introduced the worship of Baal to his people. As king, he was supposed to lead Israel in worship to the true God.
In peril of his life, Elijah confronted Ahab with his sin, and then had to live in isolation until God called him to the ultimate contest: one lonely prophet against the united forces of 450 prophets of Baal. The difference was that Elijah worshipped the God of power and the Baal prophets worshipped a nonentity. The battleground was Mount Carmel – a high point so that all could see God’s clear victory and no one could deny its reality. When the people saw God hurl down fire in majestic action, they cried, ‘The Lord – he is God!’ (v. 39).
After this emotional high, these two men react in different ways. Ahab goes off to find food, whereas Elijah climbs to the summit of Mount Carmel to seek God and ask him to send rain to break the crippling drought in the land. Maybe he climbed to the top to get away from any distractions, but perhaps also to provide another visual picture for the spectators that God truly was the one who could answer the prayer of a human soul in quietness and without fanfare. The prophets of Baal had called on their god with loud frantic shouts and cut themselves with knives.
A small cloud appeared on the horizon and Elijah acted immediately, confident that this tiny beginning heralded a spectacular event. Elijah is an example for us in his courage, his willingness to sacrifice and his confident expectation that God would listen and answer prayer.
In your prayer life, can you see small beginnings of answers? Don’t be discouraged – keep looking for them, however tiny, and trust God for their complete fulfillment.
