The Days of Elijah Part 4

3. The answer to our prayers may bring hardship upon others.

When someone asks us to pray for them they usually expect that the answer to the prayer will make a difficult situation better and in doing so relief their suffering. However, sometimes when we pray for others God has a different agenda than ours. He does not look only at the immediate situation but He sees the situation how it fits into His plan for our lives. Sometimes the person that we pray for has to go through the refining fire to purify them. When Elijah prayed for the widow of Zarephath with whom he was staying her life became more difficult. When her son died she immediately blamed Elijah and in doing so she also blamed his God. She had forgotten that if Elijah had not come to her home both her son and herself would have died. She had forgotten that her very life was the result of Elijah coming into her life. How often it is the same with us. We see the immediate hardship and forget the blessings that God bestowed upon us in the past. Our concern is for our immediate comfort while God’s concern is for a holy life. When the son was returned alive to his mother she knew that Elijah was truly a man of God and that he spoke the truth. She knew that there was no God but the God is Israel.