[00:00:00] Three, two. Well, hey, friends, welcome back to another edition of the weekday podcast. Super grateful you're here today. And hey, if there's ever anything we can join you in praying for, drop us a
[email protected] prayer sugarhillchurch.com we'd be honored to lift that up. Well, if you're listening to this podcast in real time, you know that yesterday we met a prophet named Elijah, and we left him under a juniper tree where he was asking God to take his life. Well, today I want you to see what God actually does with a man who is completely wrung out because it's not what you'd expect. Here's what it says in 1 Kings 19, 5, 8. It says, and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, arise and eat. Then he looked, and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and he lay down again. He arose and he ate and drank. And he went in the strength of that food, 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
[00:00:56] Now, what's interesting is that when God shows up, there's no rebuke. There's no pep talk. There's no, get back out there, champ. Twice an angel just tells him to eat. He eats, he sleeps, and then he eats again. And on the strength of that food, he walks 40 days to the mountain of God. Now, before God ever addresses Elijah's fear, before he addresses his theology or his complaint, he feeds him. The body gets cared for before the crisis gets diagnosed. If we're not careful, we try to pray our way out of something that, honestly, a sandwich and maybe even a nap would have fixed. We treat rest like it's some spiritual compromise instead of what is actually here. It's the first step that God takes towards restoring a broken man. So the question I want to ask you is the question of this passage, is what you're feeling right now a faith problem? Or could it just be a body problem? Did you sleep? Have you eaten anything besides coffee today? Have you taken an actual day off and longer than you'd like to admit?
[00:01:59] Maybe, just maybe, the most spiritual thing that you can do this week isn't a longer, quiet time. Maybe it's going to bed on time. Maybe it's eating a real lunch instead of grinding through it at your desk. Here's your one small thing before you add one more spiritual discipline to your list.
[00:02:16] Take care of the body that God gave you to carry it out in.
[00:02:20] Sometimes the whisper doesn't come in words. Sometimes the whisper comes in just rest. And tomorrow Elijah reaches the mountain and God shows up in a way nobody expects. So I don't want you to miss it. Before God addressed Elijah's crisis, he addressed his exhaustion. The body gets cared for before the crisis gets diagnosed. Have a great day. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
