Strength for the next forty days:
“‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.’ So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.” – 1 Kings 19:7-8, CSB
No stranger to waiting
He was no stranger to hardship, to waiting. For Elijah, success could just as often look more like a process as it did an immediate victory. Maybe more often. Once he had taken a dead child in his arms and laid him on the bed, seeking God’s resurrecting intervention. It wasn’t after the first time of stretching himself out over the boy and calling out to God for his life that the boy began to breathe again. It wasn’t after the second time. It was only after the third (17:19-22).
More recently for Elijah, it wasn’t after the first time of sending his servant to look for signs of promised rain that the answer came. It wasn’t after the second. Or the third. The sign didn’t come immediately after he got down on his knees, bowing before God to wait, but he kept waiting anyway. Four times, he sent his servant. Five. Six. On the seventh the answer finally came. And all of this was after years of being in hiding (17:3; 18:10). Years.
Strength intervention: an angel and a meal
We may tend to think of Elijah as almost super-human. And yet, with violent threats continuing against his life, we next find him in a depressed and depleted state, needing intervention. Does this sound super-human? Is this the man God is commissioning for a God-ordained forty-day journey into the desert to the mountain of God? Yes. God sends the intervention Elijah needs and it starts with an angel. What the angel says though is so practical, maybe it’s not quite what we would expect: eat, or you won’t have strength for this journey.
“Get up and eat,” is just as much a word from the Lord as “Get up and go” (17:9). Fueling is not only of a spiritual nature, like Jesus saying, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” (John 4:34). Fueling for spiritual mission is also very practical, like feeding our physical bodies.
Spiritual victory, physical component
When was it that the devil came to tempt Jesus? When He was physically hungry (Matthew 4:2-3). And we shouldn’t be surprised that we’ll face temptations in moments or seasons when we are physically weakened. Our spiritual victories very often have a physical component. To keep going, to take on the next wilderness journey, sometimes the key to succeeding in God’s plan is to first do something very simple: get up and eat.
Think:
Being in God’s will does not mean everything always works out right away or on the first try. What are you working on that might take a few more tries to succeed? Is it something you’re sure God has called you to do? If so, then keep praying and stick with it!
Elijah needed physical strength to carry out his spiritual journey. He also needed nourishment to recover mental clarity and to snap his emotional depression. How’s your mental clarity? Do you struggle with depression? Don’t underestimate the power of a good meal to help you snap out of the funk.
If you want to journey in faith for the long haul, remember to nourish your body. If you’re not in a focused time of intentional fasting and praying, you need to remember to eat! God is not into asceticism and deprivation. He designed your physical body, so don’t feel guilty about eating a good meal.
Prayer:
“Father, thank You for the example of Elijah. Thank you, not only the example of his persevering faith, but also of his human relatability that needed to eat to continue forward into Your purpose. If he struggled with depression and found fresh vision and strength, so can I! If he saw breakthrough in prayer after multiple attempts, I know I can still trust You when I don’t see answers right away. And thank You for the reminder that it’s just as spiritual for me to ‘get up and eat’ as it is for me to ‘get up and go’ forward into great mission.”