Rightly Placed Confidence - Elijah

Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

1 Kings 18:20-21

Walking through the front door one evening after a long day’s work, a man glanced up just in time to see his four-year-old son flying at him. The boy wanted to greet Dad (and have some fun doing it), so he jumped off the family sofa into his arms.

The boy had played “jump and catch” with his father many times before, and Dad had never failed to catch him. He knew that Dad would never drop him, even when he added this new twist.

That’s confidence!

Elijah demonstrated that kind of confidence in his heavenly Father when he challenged 450 priests of the pagan idol Baal to call on their god to match the power of the true and living God. Elijah had grown tired of the waffling going on around him. He wanted the people to decide once and for all whom they would serve—God or Baal. To give them a clear choice, Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to make a sacrifice in front of everyone and see what happened.

They did, and nothing happened.

Now it was time for the real God to show what he could do.

When Elijah had seen the sad spectacle of Baal’s priests, he set up an altar and made things a little more interesting by saturating the altar, the sacrifice, and the ground around it with water. At just the right moment, he called on God to remind the people who he was.

Elijah never had a doubt about what would happen next.

With the people and the prophets of Baal looking on, God sent down a fire that consumed the soaked offering, the wood, and the stones of the altar. After seeing that demonstration, the people of Israel had no doubt about who the real God was.

Place your complete confidence in the one true God. You can count on him to step up and be God in every one of life’s situations.