Daily Devotional – 6/4/12 “If your God doesn’t answer, try mine!”

In worship service on yesterday morning, my pastor, Uncle Larry spoke from 1 Kings 18:16-24 entitled “When your God doesn’t answer, change your God!” This was intriguing to me, so I found myself reading the entire chapter for in this particular scripture, Ahab, a leader, was evil and the people of Israel followed him and didn’t mind disobeying God’s commandments, they even stopped believing in God and started worshipping another God, Baal. Because of this God sent a famine over their land, you know to get their attention but after 3 years of being disobedient, God sent his servant Elijah to them to present himself to Ahab. See, God needed to show them that their God didn’t really exist and if they believed in him and turn from their wicked ways, he would send a great rain, one which they desperately needed. So Elijah obeyed, he presented himself to Ahab and asked him to gather all the people on Mount Carmel. During this meeting, it says in 1 Kings 18:22-24, “Then Elijah said, “I’m the only prophet of GOD left in Israel; and there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let the Baal prophets bring up two oxen; let them pick one, butcher it, and lay it out on an altar on firewood—but don’t ignite it. I’ll take the other ox, cut it up, and lay it on the wood. But neither will I light the fire. Then you pray to your gods and I’ll pray to GOD. The god who answers with fire will prove to be, in fact, God.” All the people agreed: “A good plan—do it!” Elijah couldn’t just say his God was real but he had to show them, you know how God has to sometimes do to us. So the people of Baal did what they were told and after placing their sacrifice on the altar they begin praying to their God. They prayed and they prayed but after hours and hours of praying with no response, Elijah began to make fun of them for Verse 28, says he mocked them by saying, “Call a little louder—he is a god, after all. Maybe he’s off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he’s gotten involved in a project, or maybe he’s on vacation. You don’t suppose he’s overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up?” See, Elijah was simply trying to get them to understand that they couldn’t serve 2 Gods which is why in Verse 21 he asked, “How long are you going to sit on the fence? If GOD is the real God, follow him; if it’s Baal, follow him. Make up your minds,” but they never said a word. So they prayed longer, louder and even start cutting themselves with swords and used every trick they could think of and still not a word or flicker of fire from their God. Elijah finally had enough and he said, “Enough of that—it’s my turn. Gather around.” And they did. The watched him as he placed twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Jacob, into the altar in honor of GOD, he dug a fairly wide trench around the altar, laid the firewood, cut up the ox and put it on the altar. Then he had Baal’s people drench the ox, the wood and the trench with water 3 times just to make sure they knew there was nothing funny about God working. See, when God works, he works this thang out in your favor without tricks and gimmicks. Now, when it was time for Elijah to make his sacrifice, he prayed to his God and verse 38 says, “Immediately the fire of GOD fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.” When this happened, “All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “GOD is the true God! GOD is the true God! (Verse 39)”

But why does God have to send a sign for us to believe that he’ll do what he said he would? We know that his first commandment says in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me,” yet, as a people we’ve allowed ourselves to get caught up in material things that have now become our God. You know how the car trumps church service because it’s almost new and you don’t want to add miles to it but you drive everywhere else. The job trumps your fellowship with God because you’ll take a vacation day to go shopping but not one on a Sunday once a month to commune with Him. The club even trumps God because you’ll use your tithe money to buy clothes, alcohol and pay your way in and then complain that the Pastor is taking all the money for himself. Child, you can’t keep straddling the fence because either you’ll soon fall or you’ll get a splinter in your butt and neither is better than the other. Please don’t be offended, I don’t need to convince you that my God is better than your God because I’ll let his work speak for him but I’m saying you need to choose. I’m not saying that you have to give up doing some of the things you used to do but you can do them better. I didn’t say you had to stop wearing what you want, just wear it better. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” He didn’t say you couldn’t drink but he says don’t get drunk (Ephesians 5:18). He didn’t say you couldn’t dance because Ecclesiastes 3:4 says, “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” If God didn’t think we wouldn’t ever sin, why do you think he made repentance for us by sacrificing his only Son? God knows you’re not perfect but you’ve got to make up your mind; the world or God? You can’t serve man Monday through Saturday and then God only on Sundays because it doesn’t work like that. When you become filled with worldly stuff, then God’s business gets pushed to the back which is why 1 John 2:15 says “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You know that when you try to provide the same amount of attention to 2 things at the same time, one will suffer, right? It’s like trying to blow air into 2 balloons at the same time. When you take your mouth off of one, the air releases so the only way for you to get one the size it needs to be, you have to continue to blow into it, which means the other one will be left out; at least until you finish with the first one. This is the same way with trying to serve God and the world. When you focus on the world, then God’s plan for your life is placed on hold until you are finished but will you finish in enough time to go back and get God and if you do, will he still be in the same place you left him?

No one can make you serve God just like no one can make me serve the devil, it’s a personal choice, however, you can’t serve both because the devil can’t bless you like God can and God will never bless you like the devil can. Choose today to get off the fence. If the world is where you want to be, do that until you are ready to commit yourself, wholeheartedly to God because serving God is a work that needs your full attention because with society being the way it is, today, we got a lot of work to do. Let me give it to you straight; if your God can’t create a world in 7 days, create seas/rivers with the command of his voice, make man out of dirt, a woman out of a man’s rib, heal your body & wipe your tears without touching you, snatch you from the doors of hell just by reaching out and forgive you even though you keep doing wrong; you’re serving the wrong God. If you have to get a buzz from alcohol instead of walking into God’s house, if you have to get high from smoking weed instead of from the Holy Spirit, if you have to cry from the hurt of the world instead of having joy and if you have to run from folks instead of rejoicing; you need to change your God. If you find joy in other folk’s tears and rejoice from other folk’s pain; you’re serving the wrong God. If the God you’re serving isn’t answering your prayers, try my God. If the God you’re serving can’t fill you up when you’re hungry, rock you to sleep when you’re restless, calm your nerves when you’re pacing, light the path you’re walking when it gets dark, carry you when it feels like you can’t go one, add more rope to the one you’re holding when it’s about to break and cushion the ground before you fall; you’re serving the wrong God. If the God you serve can’t make you feel warm on this inside and you haven’t drank anything hot, make you want to dance when there is no music, shout when you have no money in the bank and walk on even during the storm; you’re serving the wrong God. Joshua 24:15 sums it all up; “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”