Most people like a party. Surprisingly, even a pity party.
For some reason there are times that we like to feel miserable, alone, even abandoned. Playing the victim carries some status, I guess. Of course there are times when we’re not playing the victim but actually are. Times when we don’t just feel alone but are. When we’re in the moment it’s difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between what we feel and reality. Our perception, in the pain, often defines our reality. Our head may know truth but our heart make counter.
Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.
1 Kings 19:18
In our text today Elijah has just been God’s servant in an amazing show of God’s power and might. God has used him to display His greatness to the leaders and people of the land in an explicit and undeniable way. Yet right after this he is threatened and runs away scared. When he talks to God he bemoans that he is the only one left who is faithful to Him. Elijah may well have felt that was true, even though it is likely there was evidence to the contrary.
And God showed him that what Elijah felt was indeed not at all true. Elijah was not alone. He was not abandoned. He was not the only one left who was faithful to God. God tells Elijah that He has preserved for Himself “seven thousand in Israel” (1 Kings 19:18) who have remained faithful to Him.
That’s not to say that Elijah didn’t feel alone. It’s God telling him he wasn’t alone. God’s reality is what matters no matter how we feel.
That doesn’t minimize our feelings or are hurts or pains. But it is a stark reminder that those things, though our reality, are often or seldom not true reality.
There are times that we may feel distant from God, abandoned by God, all alone. There are times when we feel our sins have pushed us so far from Him that He couldn’t possibly still be present with us, still forgive us ,still love us. That we are all alone.
But that’s not reality.
Through faith in Jesus Christ the reality is that He has preserved us for Himself forever. He is with us and we are not alone. Ever. We are not abandoned because Jesus was for us. Even in our pain He has given us the Victory.
That is reality. That is what matters.
Through faith in Jesus we are preserved. By God. For Himself.
Remember this in your suffering and pain. Remember Jesus’ words that, “Lo, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
“Thank you, Lord God, for checking our feelings with Your reality. With Your care. With Your love. Help us to always remember that so that our feelings don’t trump Your Truth. Remind us that through faith in Jesus alone You have preserved us for Yourself forever. In Jesus name, amen.”
Scriptures
- Galatians 3:23-4:7
