3. The answer to our prayer may bring hardship upon us.
However, I am sure that he had doubts about his own future. What was he going to do when there was no more water? How could he exist without the stream? He knew that God had directed the ravens to bring him food but how could the ravens bring him water to drink? I am sure he asked the Lord what was going on. Had the Lord abandoned him and left him to die? It was then that the Lord reminded him, “I am only answering your prayer. You prayed that it would not rain and it hasn’t rained. That is why the brook is drying up.” Elijah was reminded that praying can be dangerous. When God answers our prayers it does not necessarily mean comfort and ease for us but rather it often means hardship and difficulty. God is not interested in our comfort as much as our holiness. Before Elijah prayed that it would not rain the people had been living in comfort but they had drifted far away from their God. If God had been interested in their comfort he would have left them in the state that they were in rather than shut up the heavens.
Elijah needed to be reminded why he had been sent to Kerith. It was not for his own protection that he was removed from the mainstream of life but as a judgment upon the nation of Israel. God withdrew his servants which was a greater judgment than the withholding of rain. Without His servants there would come a greater famine than the lack of food. Amos tells us, "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD , "when I will send a famine through the land-not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it. Amos 8:11 – 12 (NIV).
How often that happens to us? We pray for healing and we become more ill. Is God playing a sick joke on us? It is then that God reminds us that before physical healing there should be spiritual healing. He may have allowed the illness into our lives to get our attention. James tells us, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” James 5:16 (NIV)
Finally the day came when he walked down to the steam and there was no more water. It was then that the word of the Lord came to him. Notice that the Word of the Lord came to him. Often we try to discover the will of God for our lives. We need to know that while we are in the Word, fasting and praying that the Word of the Lord will come to us. God leads us step by step. We have to be obedient to the revelation He has given us before He will give us a new revelation. Now it was time for Elijah to move on. How the Word of the Lord came to him we do not know but however it was Elijah knew that it was the Word of the Lord. Maybe the Lord spoke to him in a dream or a vision or maybe it was just the still small voice of the Spirit speaking to his spirit. However it was, Elijah knew that God had directed him.
How often we are interested in our comfort while God is interested in our holiness. The Lord allows hardships and difficulties into our lives so we can become holy. We often pray for comfort and He desires to make us holy. Often in our prayers we give lip service to holiness only to find that God answers that prayer by making us uncomfortable.
Many people have testified to their spiritual growth in terms such as these: It was the year that I was diagnosed with cancer that God became real in my life. Some one else may say, it was the time when my father passed away that I began to seek God. Another person may add, it was the year that my business failed that I learned to walk by faith. In each of these cases the person may add something like this: “It was not my desire to get cancer or that anyone would suffer as I suffered but I thank God for that suffering because then God became real to me.” We need to remember that God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort and if we are serious about being holy then we may see God working in ways that we would never expect. Remember the words of the Lord to Habakkuk, “For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV).
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