Dried Up?

"So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while, the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land." I KIngs 7:5-7

Has your brook dried up? Has the place where He has set you become a seeming wasteland? Is this what you're finding in your ministry, your profession, your relationships.....your marriage and family? Chances are it is, and if not, and you really are following Him, it likely will one day be so. What will you do there? How will you respond? What will take place in your relationship with Him? All of these questions and more will be before you. They will demand answers.

Elijah surely loved his place beside the brook. He could witness God's daily care for him. All his needs were met and the hand of the Father was clearly evident. Until it wasn't. Until the place he loved became a wilderness, a desert. Where supply was suddenly cut off. Where His hand and work were no longer a daily happening. Where was God, and what would now happen to Elijah? More questions, and they too would require answers.

I've had a brook or two dry up in my life. Ministry, relationships, marriage and family. All at one time were "brooks" that I loved and would never wish to leave. Then they dried up. There was never one particular reason. Sometimes it was the result of a changing season, with one ending and another soon to begin. This was the case with Elijah. The Father had a new place for him to go, and a new person for him to minister to; the widow in Zarephath. But notice that he did not leave his place at the brook until he heard and knew the voice of his God. He didn't act on impulse, as so many do, he waited upon the leading of His Father God. At your dried up brook, this may be how He leads you. Then again, it may not. He may keep you right there, be it in ministry, in relationship, and especially as concerns marriage and family. This passage of Scripture doesn't relate such a path, but I know that He does lead in that way. In this too, we must listen for His voice.

Brooks and streams can be funny places. They do dry up.....on the surface. But often, underneath the surface, flows another, deeper stream. One that we must dig deeply to reach. God may well have a Zarephath for you, but just as likely, He calls you to stay still, stay attentive, and as you do, dig....deeper into the "soil" of your location, and especially, deeper into Him. If we will dare to do so, trusting in His voice and leading, and not in appearances, we will discover the new brook, filled with His life giving water. This will be so in all of the situations listed above. Into what has seemed barren and dried up will flow His water of life. And all that we thought had been lost can be renewed by that water. If we'll just dig.

If you're at your brook, or approaching it, do nothing without His clear leading. Go nowhere unless you're assured He already goes before you. If you have no sense of that.....dig.....deeply, and trust that the living water He has for you will flow anew into your ministry, situation, relationships and marriage. And you will find you didn't have to go to "Zarephath" to have it. Dried up brooks are no obstacle to Him. He will either lead you to a new one, or bring the waters lying beneath to the surface. Dried up brooks are not His final place for us when we obediently follow Him. Whatever the condition of your brook, is that your choice as well?

Blessings,
Pastor O