The Lord's Bidding

Sometimes God tells us to do things that really do not make a whole lot of sense.  Remember Jesus' trip to Bethany after Lazarus died.  Jesus got the word to come before His friend died, but He delayed going and, therefore, arrived after Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.  (John 17:11)  The disciples must have murmured, "What's the point in going?"  And, then there is old Elijah up on Mt. Carmel confronting the 450 prophets of Baal and King Ahab.  Apparently, he went up the mountain with four large jars of water and enough extra water to fill them up two more times.  What brings us to this conclusion is I Kings 18:36 where we hear him praying to the Lord, "...O Lord...let it be known...that  I have done all these things at your bidding...."

 

When Elijah showed up on the mountain, he brought a lot of stuff with him.  He already knew what the Lord wanted him to do and he went prepared to do it.  To the average person, it was an unlikely thing to do, but Elijah knew it was the Lord's bidding and nothing else mattered.   Unfortunately, we are prone to act first and ask about God's bidding later.  It is not surprising that some of the things we do in His name do not work out like we figure they should.  It may be more about us than Him.

 

It is always important to seek and know the Lord's bidding in our life.  Without knowing we may do some good things, but their effectiveness is somehow diminished by the seeds of our own willfulness that we plant with the deed.  If we are really serious about doing the work of God in the places where He has put us, we must spend enough time with Him to know and understand His bidding.  To act according to His bidding may not bring the spectacular results experienced by Elijah on the mountain, but we will end the day with the joy of being a faithful and obedient servant.