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How Long?

“Elijah went before the people and said, ‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’ But the people said nothing.” 1 Kings 18:21

Imagine the scene with me. Elijah, this wild prophet of the Lord, stands before the people of Israel pleading with them to simply decide, once and for all, who they will serve. They have been following the false god, Baal. Their wicked king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel, have 450 prophets of Baal at their service. Elijah is wildly outnumbered and yet he stands, challenging them with such an important question, “How long?”

Elijah’s question should pierce us to the core. I wonder how often we stand there, as the people of Israel did, and say nothing when confronted with our own idolatry. Idolatry, you say? Most of us don’t have idols laying around our house. Yet, many days we bow our knee to the idol of money or sex or power or self or consumerism or our job or a relationship. We do things we know we ought not do, but we rationalize away that they could be so much worse. And the whole time the question stands, “How long?”

How long will we keep turning our eyes and attention back to the things that end up destroying us in the end? How long will we be unsettled in our spirit, wanting to worship God and yet turning to our own strength in times of temptation? How long will we waver?

Elijah made it simple for people: If Lord is God follow Him, if the other thing you’re following is god then follow that. I think that makes our choice easy. We must have One Lord and He is the one that can bring true peace, grace, and love into our lives.

Prayer Focus: Lord, I choose today to stop wavering between You and something else. I confess my idols to You today and I surrender to Your way, Your Lordship of my life.

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