“Would you bring the devotional?”
As I prepared, I was somewhat nervous, knowing that I would be in the midst of some “missionary greats” of the world. As that day in Prague approached, I had spent as much time in prayer as I had dealing with the passage.
I decided to use the Truths that the Father had spoken about our tongues and their tendency to ignite with Gehenna’s flame.
After the devotional, many references were made about our tongue as fire. As a group, we were cautious of our words. Sometimes in jest and sometimes seriously, the theme sparked many of our discussions.
And I watched my tongue most carefully. After all, I wanted to be able to have spoken with authority.
But, then I got home.
There was
- a pile of laundry,
- a mound of email
- and a stack of snail mail awaiting me.
My family was coming, the house was a wreck, my throat was scratchy and I had jet lag.
And to top it off,
Mark was beginning to really irritate me.
Now remember, just weeks earlier, I had delivered a stirring devotional about a tongue with the fire of hell.
As I shifted my own tongue within my mouth, it sizzled just a bit and I could almost smell the smoke.
“I’d better keep my mouth shut.”
Yeah, that was the plan….
Instead – I incinerated him with a sudden outburst.
……….
“Elijah was a man with a nature (Greek: “feelings or affections”) like ours…” James 5:17
Really? Did he have a problem with his tongue?
Surely not. Wasn’t this the guy that not only called down fire from heaven, controlled the weather, and went to heaven in some kind of chariot?
He was a spiritual giant, right?
Ummmm….maybe not –
Remember when the prophets of Baal couldn’t get any fire from heaven? Elijah was on hand with a flaming wit and a smoking sarcasm:
“Call a little louder – he is a god, after all. Maybe he’s off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he’s gotten involved in a project, or maybe he’s on vacation. You don’t suppose he’s overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up?” (1 Kings 18:27 The Message)
Elijah was “the Tishbite (Hebrew: “captivity”), who was of the sojourners (Hebrew: “an emigrant, a stranger”) of Gilead (Hebrew: “a rocky region”), who had a tendency to fear and despondency.
I don’t know about you, but that pretty much describes me:
- Former captive of sin….
- Now Kingdom citizen wandering about the earth as a foreigner….
- With a tendency to trip at every step…
- With fear…
- Despair….
- And ungodly speech….
Yet, this is the very kind of man that is considered righteous enough for prayers that work.
Kinda gives me hope. What about you?
.