Main Thought
There are big challenges all around us. It’s true now, and it was true for God’s people when the forefathers of our faith walked the earth. One of them was Elijah, the prophet. Our world is very different now; however, Elijah’s life revealed God’s greatness in situations that are similar to ones that we face today. God is bigger than our cultural climate. He’s bigger than any economic recession or our personal needs. God is even bigger than death. God did big things in Elijah’s day, and He still wants to do big things today.
If only we could be like Elijah, right? That’s the thing: we are like Elijah. He was a human being who experienced human emotions, just like we do. But Elijah prayed fervent, passionate, and powerful prayers. He knew that the challenges were big but God was bigger. If we believe that God is bigger, then we will pray bigger prayers. We can come to God in desperate faith, and ask Him to move with the right motives in our hearts. God only answers us after we ask Him.
Main Passages
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
- 1 Kings 17:1
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
- James 5:17-18
…You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
- James 4:2-3
Discussion Questions
What stands out to you in the Main Thought and Passages above?
The book of James suggests that we may not receive answers to prayer because we 1) don’t ask God, or 2) ask with selfish motives. Do either of these two things apply to you?
What’s one big thing that you’d like to ask God for? Find a partner and pray.