Today's Eagle's Wings: Friday, February 03, 2012

Elijah was the prophet of fire. The amazing incident on Mount Carmel, when he called down fire on the carcass of the sacrificial bullock, stands out in everyones memory as the greatest event in his momentous career. Yet when James was inspired to summarize Elijahs great ministry, he did not mention his calling down fire. Rather, he went much deeper and reached to the real secret of Elijahs greatness, his prayer life.

We tend to be dazzled by the spectacular. At times what the Lord does is spectacular, and we should be impressed. But too often in our love of the spectacular we neglect the most important thing of allour communion with the Lord. We admit we need what Elijah hadhis power, his knowledge of God, his lionlike boldness, his childlike faith, and his epoch-making results. But to enjoy any of these we need to experience Elijahs praying. That is why James used the prophet as an example of the principle in todays text.

The great encouragement of this verse is that God answers prayer for ordinary people. Elijah was a man of natural passions. He was not a superman. He was a man subject to like passions as we are (v. 17). He could be explosive, emotional, exuberant, or exhausted just as we can. And he prayed earnestly (v. 17). Literally, he prayed in his prayer. God always honours that kind of praying. When we become earnest in prayerwhen we stop playing and start prayingwe will discover that Elijahs God still lives today and answers still by fire, as the old hymn puts it. Let us, like Elijah, put our passion into praying. Then and only then will we become powerful in the service of the Lord.