I’m feeling good…

walking closely with God.

Hearing him.

Seeing him move.

Got a new Christian song rolling around in my head all day.

It’s all good.

And then something happens.

Big or little – it doesn’t have to be a major thing.

And life is suddenly a struggle again.  The things rolling through my head are not the most positive things.  I start wondering – where is God?  What is he doing?  It’s like a dimmer switch has turned down the light in my life and everything becomes darker…colder…..sad.

I know this happens to you too.  This is how it is here on our broken planet.

As we read Elijah’s story in 1 Kings, we find that it’s been like this for thousands of years.

First, Elijah is up on Mount Carmel, trusting God who shows up in such a powerful display of omnipotence that all of the Baal followers fall on their faces to worship the One True God.  Wow!

And then we read that Elijah went away to crawl into a cave to hide because he didn’t trust God to save him from his enemies.

Up!

Down.

Up!

Down.

It’s not easy to have a long-term, consistent relationship with God.

Life gets complicated.  Emotions start rolling.  Stuff happens.  And we find ourselves going up!

Then down.

OK, going up again!

Then down.

I have found a key that helps me avoid some of this ‘I’m not having fun’ time on the teeter-totter.  And that key is to follow God’s direction to me to trust and obey him – all the time.

Trust and obey – it works on the mountaintops when everything is great!

And it works in the valleys when I want to crawl in a cave.

It doesn’t take all the emotion out of the ride up and down but it helps limit the bad choices I could be making if I was reacting to all of these fluctuating feelings.  When I remember how faithful God has always been in the past, I can stand firm knowing that he will also be faithful today and in the future.

It’s not easy, but it works.

Thank you for your faithfulness, Abba Father.