Never Walk Alone

We’re working through the life of Elijah at church this month. Today’s sermon covered a grim moment in Elijah’s life. He had just defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, which should have helped him feel pretty confident that God was taking care of him. But when Queen Jezebel (big fan of Baal) found out about the showdown, she marked Elijah for death. Shortly after Elijah’s greatest victory, he heads out of town, running for his life.

In I Kings 19, God meets Elijah in the cave where he’s hiding. Elijah says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me.” (Emphasis added.)

There’s an amazing scene here where the cave is rocked by a mighty wind, followed by an earthquake, followed by a fire, and then God comes to Elijah in a “gentle whisper.” God tells Elijah that his work as a prophet is not done, adding, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” (Emphasis added again.)

See that? Elijah thought he was the only one left loyal to God, but there were seven thousand others keeping the faith in spite of all of Jezebel’s efforts to convert Israel to Baal.

After the sermon, we sang Matt Redman’s “Never Once.” Here’s the chorus:

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Singing this song, I thought about the hard times in my life over the last several years, and I found those words to be true. Never once did I walk alone. God surrounded me with His love by surrounding me with His people. That men’s group I mentioned a few weeks ago? Those guys were right there with me. I joined a brand new community group at my church, and these new friends were with me, too. Church staff, my family, friends from college… they all reached out to me, and, through them, God let me know that He was caring for me.

I don’t want to forget that. I don’t want to try and be a Godly father all on my own. I want to seek out His people and the community they bring.

And I want my daughters to know the value of being part of a community. That’s why I bring them to church every Sunday they’re with me. Hannah doesn’t always want to go (because, I’ve found, eight-year-olds can complain about anything), but we go anyway. When they’re older, I want them to know in their bones that God’s people will love them and care for them. I learned that thanks to my parents, who took me to church every week (and in middle school, usually over my protests).

I don’t know what’s in store for my girls, but when they’re 20something and living who knows where doing who knows what, I want them to know they can always find God working through His people.

Image: “Four friends with their shadows,” Dimitris Papazimouris, Flickr (CC)