DRY SPELLS

I Kings 17: 2-4 “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."

If you’ve ever experienced lasting defeat; If you’ve ever had all that you’ve come to depend on taken away for a season; If you’ve ever had to endure a seemingly endless famine in your life—God has hope for you. If you are going through a significant period of drought in your spiritual life, when the Lord seems far from you, and his presence seems to be strangely absent. You’ve worshipped on the mountaintop before, but now you’ve been in the desert for weeks or months. If it’s easier to squeeze water out of a rock, than to find the words to pray—God has a refreshing coming your way.

Spiritual deserts are absolutely the most mysterious and difficult times of the Christian life, but they are essential for growth in the faith. In 1 Kings 17, all of Israel is in a spiritual drought. There has been 19 evil Kings reigning over God’s people in a row. And now the worst of them all, King Ahab has taken a strangle hold on God’s people. They had become an idol-serving and pagan worshipping disgrace. Even the priests have become corrupt—or they have flat out ran for their lives. And so to counteract the spiritual drought, God’s prophet Elijah calls for a physical drought. And even the famed prophet himself will have to be subject to it. Not even dew formed in the morning.

Droughts and famines happen in every area of life. In baseball, it’s called a “slump.” And even the hall-of-famers have them. One time Mickey Mantle the all-time great went through a terrible slump that just seemed to drag on for game after game. One particular evening in the 1950’s he struck out in all three at bats. Disgraced, he sat down in the dugout, tossed his helmet to the dirt and put his head in his hands. Finally a young boy walked over to him. It was Tommy Bera, the son of the great manager Yogi Bera. Tommy tapped him on the knee, looked tenderly into his eyes and said—“You stink!”

Droughts happen in every area of life, but the spiritual droughts are the worst. When the brook runs dry in your soul, the easiest thing to do is to wrap yourself in the cocoon of despair and quit. But despairing and quitting are not godly options. There are keys to survival, when your life source has seemingly evaporated.

So the prophet Elijah was in the middle of this drought and things were tough. God instructed Elijah to go by the “wadi” at Cherith. A “wadi” is a small body of water that does not appear, except during the rainy season. You know what that means? It means that God sustained Elijah by a brook of water that should never have existed at all. Could it be that the dry spell that you are in right now has a solution that you didn’t even know was possible? You say you haven’t “felt” God’s presence much lately: Maybe God is even now giving you strength through a deep-running spring that you didn’t even know existed. The drought wasn’t Elijah’s fault. But Elijah is called to be obedient in the midst of it. You too may be called to obey during a drought that you have absolutely no power to control. But I want you to understand this: God never calls us to endure a situation that he himself is not prepared to sustain us through.

Have faith in the dry times of life. God will be sure to refresh us by his supernatural supply at the right moment. We must be sure to continually look to him when we can’t see him, worship him when we can’t feel him, and listen for him when we can’t hear him. He is there in the drought. And a rain is coming.