Living Before God
Updated: Sep 6
"...“As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand..." (1 Kings 17:1)
Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice...Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”" (1 Kings 19:11-13)
There is so much to learn and consider when we think about that vulnerable moment in Elijah's life when he was running away from the will of the Lord and hiding in a cave after hearing of the threat from the king's wife, Jezebel. How quickly Elijah, and all of us, can so easily forget about God's past faithfulness and the powerful work He has already done and is able to do in our lives.
There is coming a day when we will all stand before God and give an account to how we lived our lives and of whether we fully trusted in Christ and obeyed His voice. The only way to properly prepare for that day is to live each day as if before the Lord. O how we must learn to daily look to the Lord and ask Him to make us aware of His holy presence and to acknowledge Him in all of our ways so that He might direct our paths.
As David once wrote in Psalm 139, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?...If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You". Our God is with us at all times and even when we cannot see or are faithless, He remains faithful.
There is so much we cannot see that is happening around us in the spiritual realm and so much that we cannot fully understand by the things that we are able to see. Both Moses and Elijah saw the power of God in the forms of fire and wind and earthquakes up on the same mountain. They knew that God had worked in their hearts and through their lives. But the Lord doesn't usually work in those extreme displays of His glory but rather in quieter ways by gently leading us speaking in a soft whisper.
This is why we must learn to cultivate a listening ear for His still small voice. Jesus said that He always goes before His sheep and His sheep follow Him for they know His voice" (John 10:4).
God always knows all things and is always working on our behalf but He often puts us in certain situations to test us and to expand our faith so that we might live before Him with full confidence and peace in who He is and what He is able to do. The Lord desires that we TRUST HIM with ALL of our hearts and lean NOT on our own understanding.
If the Lord were to ask you at this time in your life, "What are you doing here?", how would you presently respond? Are you where God has called you to be? Are you dwelling in His presence and doing His will in full obedience? What about your personal relationship and walk with Him? Are you moving toward the will of God or moving away from His will?
These are important questions to consider indeed. The Lord has His ways of getting our attention and meeting us in our times of weakness and brokenness. He is faithful even when we are faithless and promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He understands our human frame and is personally acquainted with our concerns, fears, and grief. But there is one thing that pleases Him above all else - OUR FAITH!
He has ways of getting our attention and speaks in a still small voice as to what our next step needs to be. Sometimes we may even need to address our own hearts to reorientate our trust in God. As Psalm 42:5 says, "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." In the transfiguration of Jesus, we see how Moses and Elijah appeared and then vanished so that the disciples would ONLY SEE Jesus and learn to HEAR His voice.
May you choose this day who you are going to serve, remembering that in order to truly live before God, we must first learn to PUT GOD before our living.