GOD IS 'HERE' WITH YOU

1 Kings 19:5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat" 

Elijah was scared stiff and fleeing for his life. He'd just had the most amazing victory over all the false gods, called down fire, executed 450 prophets of Baal and God had shown up in such power they all bowed to the ground before Him. Yet here he is running for his life and he's bone weary, emotionally drained after all he'd just been through, he thinks he's the only prophet of God left and he wants to die! We find him sleeping under a tree. Have you ever felt a bit like that?

When we're tired we become easy prey for the enemy to deceive us, we start to feel sorry for ourselves and our thinking gets all confused so we sometimes make wrong choices.  But God meets him where he's at and tells him there are 7000 prophets left and he's not the only one! God has such compassion on him and sends an angel to give him food and water that will supernaturally sustain him for 40 days and nights and he has another sleep!

So Elijah goes on and God now finds him in a cave and He says "What are you doing here?" (1 Kings 19:9.) A huge wind blows the mountainside, the earth quakes and fire rips through the mountain but God isn't in any of those. Instead Elijah hears a still small gentle voice and it asks him the same question but I believe God spoke with such compassion and God says to him again "What are you doing here Elijah?"

In other words, this is not where you're supposed to be stuck away in a cave.  I don't want to see you defeated, feeling sorry for yourself when I still have work for you to do.  Your excuses don't hold water. Come on Elijah, get up and go and finish what I gave you to do. If you need me to produce earth shattering wind I will, if you need something to shake the earth I can do that, if you need fire to burn stuff up again you know I can do that but keep listening for my whisper in your ear. I haven't gone anywhere, I'm right here with you. I don't want to have to just talk to you in the huge dramatic events but in the everyday moments your life is made up of.

Notice God said "What are you doing here". God was 'here' with him. In the same way God is 'here' with you and me now and he says to us "What are you doing here?" What does 'here' look like for you? Whatever it looks like God says "You're not the only one, just as I've given you victories in the past I have many more for you in your future, I still have work for you to do and I've anointed you to do it in My strength not your own. Get up again and go from here and I'll show you what to do."