God's Gym
1 Kings 17:1-6
1 KINGS 17:1a (ESV)
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead...
1 KINGS 17:24 (ESV)
And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God,
1st God uses crises to call us to spiritual commitment
1 KINGS 16:30-33 (MSG)
Ahab son of Omri did even more open evil before God than anyone yet — a new champion in evil! It wasn't enough for him to copy the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat; no, he went all out, first by marrying Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then by serving and worshiping the god Baal. He built a temple for Baal in Samaria, and then furnished it with an altar for Baal. Worse, he went on and built a shrine to the sacred whore Asherah. He made the God of Israel angrier than all the previous kings of Israel put together.
1 KINGS 17:1a (ESV)
Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”
JAMES 5:17 (ESV)
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
2nd God uses crises to develop our spiritual character
1 KINGS 17:2 (ESV)
And the word of the Lord came to him,
1 KINGS 17:3 (ESV)
"Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
1 KINGS 17:5-6 (ESV)
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
1 KINGS 17:7 (ESV)
And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
1 KINGS 17:8 (ESV)
Then the word of the Lord came to him,
