AP

1 Kings 17:4-6 “You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”  So he went and did according to the word of the LORD.  He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.  And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Where/Who is your God?  Is he contained within your head, the product of your imagination?  The big advantage of this concept of God is that you are in charge, you can ‘fashion’ him to suit your own needs, and you need never be uncomfortable or challenged in his presence.  This is why most people today, even if they profess to believe in ‘God’, they are satisfied with this ‘more convenient’ way of thinking of him.

The disadvantage is that he is then limited to one’s view of the world, to just doing the ‘ordinary’, straightforward things that fit one’s scientific equations, one’s logical concepts, one’s ‘proven’ laws of nature.  And, worse still, he does not even exist!

But the true God, the God of the Bible, is outside of us – although he has come to us in human form through his Son, Jesus.  This God is the Creator of all that is, and is therefore not limited by our concepts or physical laws.  He has revealed himself to us in Creation, in his written Word, and in Jesus, so that we may know him clearly and unambiguously – but he is not bound by our knowledge of him. He made the birds and the brook, he designed Elijah and the food needed to sustain him.  It is not hard for him to look after the prophet by getting a raven to bring him bread and meat as required, and by keeping the brook Cherith flowing in time of drought.

This is why Jesus said to the crowd gathered on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

Is this the God you know, whom you can trust fully to provide all your needs?  Are you trusting him as Elijah did?

– Bruce Christian