Your journey is too great
By Richard Wurmbrand
"Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee." (1 Kings 19:7)
Dear brothers and sisters,
To begin a new year is somehow like contemplating a journey. We have come so far - perhaps the journey has been tiring. Who knows what is ahead? Will we have the strength and the courage to meet whatever lies in our path and to reach our objective?
We have put our trust in Christ! He has paid on the cross for all our sins. By faith in His sacrifice we have been considered righteous by God. By Him we are today what He is: the light of the world. (Mt 5:14).
"It is impossible but that offences will come" - said the Saviour (Luke 17:1). These offences came even to the most reliable men of God. They come to us, on our journey through life too. These do not disqualify us from being the light of the world.
Elijah the prophet passed one day through a very intense crisis for his soul. He wished to die. He was angry with God. He revolted against Him and didn’t agree with His plans. And in this state of mind, terribly furious, he fell asleep. How will God deal with his rebelliousness now... His servant deprived totally of hope?
He sent an angel.
Woe, what a damning message will this messenger of God bring to him? But instead, the angel awoke Elijah from his sleep. It must have been something very important if God took such trouble to send an angel from Heaven for this purpose. «Arise and eat!» the angel said to Elijah, and gave him a cake (1 Kings 19:5-6).
It seemed not too costly to God to send an angel for the rebellious Elijah. He was still His child, His prophet. Even if he passed now through a great spiritual crisis, he still remained Elijah the prophet. Even though he rebelled for a while, wishing to die, and seemed as if he didn’t want to know any more about God.
Elijah woke up and ate. But the bitterness he felt was not over. As it happens often with ourselves when we pass through a great crisis of our soul and suffering, we feel the need to sleep in order to forget. So Elijah did nothing else after that: he fell asleep again!
The angel of God came to him the second time. Now we would have surely expected that the angel would rebuke Elijah for his attitude that lacked gratitude. But no! To our surprise, the whole message brought to Elijah by the angel is again this: «Awake and eat, for the journey is too great for thee.»
God had not rejected Elijah. On the contrary, in His eyes, he still remained His prophet, the same man of God to whom such an important task had been entrusted, that it surpassed the natural strength of a mere man. The way prepared by God for Elijah, as a prophet, was too long and difficult for a simple man.
This journey of such great responsibility God has entrusted to the man who just then had passed through moments of difficult spiritual crisis - who was even in rebellion.
Do such moments also come over us? Have we, too, known hopelessness and rebellion? We can look back over a year and see where we have succeeded, but perhaps this backwards view is clouded with the memory of disappointment and failure. Never mind. Those do not annul the gifts and the calling to which God has called us.
It is true that in those moments we were a «light of the world»; we were without hope, rebellious, but we were still God’s children.
It is important that we are built on the Rock of Ages that is Christ. The waves of despair have passed and will still pass over us; but the Rock will remain unmoved. With the Rock, we too will remain.
Jesus said about Himself «I am the Light of the World». Oh yes, with this we are all in agreement that He is the Light of the World! But we don’t believe that we are what He is. Let us look closer at this thing.
Jonah was also a prophet of God. The way of Jonah was not the way of obedience. On the contrary, Jonah fled from God. He did not agree with the plans of God, neither on behalf of others nor for himself. Jonah fled from Him. God did not flee from Jonah, but rather looked for him. He brought him back to Himself even with a strong hand. This not in order to punish him, but to tell him: «Your disobedience was only a parenthesis. Go on now and continue from where you left. You are a jight for the world.»
The world is mostly in darkness. Many of our brothers and sisters suffer trials and persecution. Through the days ahead we need to be like mirrors to reflect the light of Christ to needy people and to bring hope and encouragement to those in despair.
The journey is great but as we feed upon the Word of God we will find the grace and strength to fulfil His purposes.
Even we, too, have fled from God and have rebelled against His plans, He has not left us. We were and still remain His children. Not by our deeds or merit have we achieved this degree. Not by deeds, be those good or bad, shall we lose this honour. We are in Christ by His grace and mercy. By His grace we shall remain through to the end of the journey. We are the light of the world.
May He help us in this.
Sincerely in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
"Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee." (1 Kings 19:7)
Dear brothers and sisters,
To begin a new year is somehow like contemplating a journey. We have come so far - perhaps the journey has been tiring. Who knows what is ahead? Will we have the strength and the courage to meet whatever lies in our path and to reach our objective?
We have put our trust in Christ! He has paid on the cross for all our sins. By faith in His sacrifice we have been considered righteous by God. By Him we are today what He is: the light of the world. (Mt 5:14).
"It is impossible but that offences will come" - said the Saviour (Luke 17:1). These offences came even to the most reliable men of God. They come to us, on our journey through life too. These do not disqualify us from being the light of the world.
Elijah the prophet passed one day through a very intense crisis for his soul. He wished to die. He was angry with God. He revolted against Him and didn’t agree with His plans. And in this state of mind, terribly furious, he fell asleep. How will God deal with his rebelliousness now... His servant deprived totally of hope?
He sent an angel.
Woe, what a damning message will this messenger of God bring to him? But instead, the angel awoke Elijah from his sleep. It must have been something very important if God took such trouble to send an angel from Heaven for this purpose. «Arise and eat!» the angel said to Elijah, and gave him a cake (1 Kings 19:5-6).
It seemed not too costly to God to send an angel for the rebellious Elijah. He was still His child, His prophet. Even if he passed now through a great spiritual crisis, he still remained Elijah the prophet. Even though he rebelled for a while, wishing to die, and seemed as if he didn’t want to know any more about God.
Elijah woke up and ate. But the bitterness he felt was not over. As it happens often with ourselves when we pass through a great crisis of our soul and suffering, we feel the need to sleep in order to forget. So Elijah did nothing else after that: he fell asleep again!
The angel of God came to him the second time. Now we would have surely expected that the angel would rebuke Elijah for his attitude that lacked gratitude. But no! To our surprise, the whole message brought to Elijah by the angel is again this: «Awake and eat, for the journey is too great for thee.»
God had not rejected Elijah. On the contrary, in His eyes, he still remained His prophet, the same man of God to whom such an important task had been entrusted, that it surpassed the natural strength of a mere man. The way prepared by God for Elijah, as a prophet, was too long and difficult for a simple man.
This journey of such great responsibility God has entrusted to the man who just then had passed through moments of difficult spiritual crisis - who was even in rebellion.
Do such moments also come over us? Have we, too, known hopelessness and rebellion? We can look back over a year and see where we have succeeded, but perhaps this backwards view is clouded with the memory of disappointment and failure. Never mind. Those do not annul the gifts and the calling to which God has called us.
It is true that in those moments we were a «light of the world»; we were without hope, rebellious, but we were still God’s children.
It is important that we are built on the Rock of Ages that is Christ. The waves of despair have passed and will still pass over us; but the Rock will remain unmoved. With the Rock, we too will remain.
Jesus said about Himself «I am the Light of the World». Oh yes, with this we are all in agreement that He is the Light of the World! But we don’t believe that we are what He is. Let us look closer at this thing.
Jonah was also a prophet of God. The way of Jonah was not the way of obedience. On the contrary, Jonah fled from God. He did not agree with the plans of God, neither on behalf of others nor for himself. Jonah fled from Him. God did not flee from Jonah, but rather looked for him. He brought him back to Himself even with a strong hand. This not in order to punish him, but to tell him: «Your disobedience was only a parenthesis. Go on now and continue from where you left. You are a jight for the world.»
The world is mostly in darkness. Many of our brothers and sisters suffer trials and persecution. Through the days ahead we need to be like mirrors to reflect the light of Christ to needy people and to bring hope and encouragement to those in despair.
The journey is great but as we feed upon the Word of God we will find the grace and strength to fulfil His purposes.
Even we, too, have fled from God and have rebelled against His plans, He has not left us. We were and still remain His children. Not by our deeds or merit have we achieved this degree. Not by deeds, be those good or bad, shall we lose this honour. We are in Christ by His grace and mercy. By His grace we shall remain through to the end of the journey. We are the light of the world.
May He help us in this.
Sincerely in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
Labels: Hope, Richard Wurmbrand, Suffering
Posted by Dominique Péladeau for the Rev. Radu Roscanu | 4:30 AM
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