SCHOOL OF FAITH IN A TIME OF DROUGHT
(8-minute read)
Many will agree that life’s most valuable lessons do not come from time-bound structured programmes with well-defined goals and outcomes. Instead, the school where we learn the best lessons about God is often a little messy and chaotic, with little predictability about what we will get at the end. In fact, we often find faith when we take the plunge and dive into uncertain and unfamiliar situations that life presents, and when we give God’s Word greater territory in our mind over human reasoning.
Indeed, it is hard for anyone to be schooled in faith if we only want to walk on the path of logical thinking and experience life in neat packages with little tolerance for surprises. Scripture recounted a time when Elijah prophesied drought and lived through the severity of the crisis for a few years. The drought halted crop production, leading to food scarcity and tremendous hardships that threatened the people’s survival (1 Kings 17:1–12).
Believers, likewise, can experience drought when there is a prolonged shortage of something we expect or desire to have. Over time, we will experience spiritual dryness and stunting, with negative thoughts creeping into our minds. We begin to ask God, How long more? Why have You allowed this to go on? Why have You not done something? We come up with our worst and best-case scenarios, including hypothesis like, “If God is good, He will make this or that happen.” Gradually, our faith comes under attack. That is why the Bible also tells us that, ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.’ Another translation says, ‘Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.” (The Messager).
When it would seem most intuitive to focus on our own well-being and survival, drought is the time when we must take our focus off ourselves and return to the one fundamental truth of our faith: that God is everlasting and He will not fail or walk away from any of us.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). This ‘assurance’ is not positive thinking: it exists in spite of opposing evidence. And the ‘conviction’ here refers to the confidence that God is still with us. Those who are going through a season of drought must know that they have been enrolled in God’s school of faith. So, whatever you do, remain in the school and do not be tempted to drop out (or skip lessons!).
Even though Elijah was a great prophet, he, too, needed to be schooled through adversities to be acquainted with God’s higher thinking. From the story of the over 3-year drought in 1 Kings 17:2-16, we see God orchestrating three things to come together as He schooled Elijah in levelling up his faith.
The Place – God kept moving Elijah from place to place – none more desirable than the others. During King Ahab’s time, the city of Samaria was a place of wickedness and atrocities because he “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him…. and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.” (1 Kings 6:30, 33). Then, he was told to seek refuge in a remote place called Kerith Ravine. It was hardly a resort destination, yet God sent Elijah there to sustain him through the drought with a supply of water from a small brook and food from ravens. After the brook dried up, God told him to head towards Zarephath, “’I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food.’ So he went to Zarephath.” (1 Kings 17:8-10).
It is noteworthy that while many of us would intuitively consider uprooting from any place (church, workplace, country of residence) as soon as difficulties arise, Elijah stayed put in each place without seeking his own escape. What he learnt left us with enduring lessons that it is erroneous to think that God only blesses us in nice places.
The People – The prophet Elijah, King Ahab and the widow involved in the story were not random actors who came together by coincidence. God handpicked and mobilized each one in His divine plan. There was a long succession of kings before Ahab became a king who perpetuated a culture of wickedness throughout Israel. The widow also did not materialize overnight: she went through different life stages before she found herself and her son alone in dire circumstances fighting for their survival when the prophet Elijah showed up.
Purpose – Elijah had to be placed in the School of Faith so that he would know how to operate his faith when the things that God told him to do did not make human sense to him. In the process, he gleaned three important life lessons on faith:
FAITH MEANS TRUST
What seems incredulous in God’s plans always works out better than anything we can humanly imagine. Believe it or not, His divine order often exists in chaos and dilemmas. To have faith in God means to trust Him as we go through the unknown, unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations and relationships. Nothing animates our faith more than action, and nothing atrophies faith more than avoidance.
Step by step, Elijah learnt that God, as unpredictable and unconventional as He could be, never failed to deliver on His promises. God took care of food and water safety so Elijah did not fall sick from eating food delivered by ravens or drinking low quality water from a brook that soon dried up. In fact, we see how his faith was elevated as he engaged the widow. Right after she told him about her own food scarcity, he upgraded his ask from a piece of bread to a small loaf of bread! Imagine how senseless and insensitive he appeared to be for approaching an impoverished widow for sustenance in the first place. And what about his reputation and credibility as a prophet?
All this is to say that we should always trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). The best stories of our lives come from trusting God rather than planning and thinking ahead of Him! In the end, we may end up extending the drought and sabotaging ourselves.
TRUST MEANS WAIT
Today, we can’t do without calendar and time-management apps, and delivery trackers so that things can be done on time (especially when we are on the receiving end!). But God, who is never late, does not use any of these tools. The only problem is when we expect Him to operate on our timelines because He rarely shows up when He is supposed to!
To wait on God is to know who He is in our lives. God is love that “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:7). So while waiting on God’s next move, we demonstrate our love for Him by protecting the trust we have in Him, trusting the validity of hope that He puts in our hearts, and persevere with Him. It may seem easier to come up with grandiose plans to circumvent the disadvantages working against us, but it is infinitely more effective to trust and wait on God to make His move and follow His lead.
Isaiah 40:28-31 is a timeless promise that has been proven true for many believers: “Yet those who wait on the Lord” (NKJ trust in the Lord; NIV hope in the Lord) will find in Him alone a renewable and inexhaustible source of strength and supernatural resolve to plough through hardships that would normally drain and deplete the hope and motivation of others.
To trust God means to wait and stay the course with Him until He shows us a different course of action. Yes, the discomfort will be there. The heartache will still be there. You will still feel alone because the place of waiting is a lonely place. Few people will check in or offer to sit with you in the waiting room because it makes them feel helpless and uncomfortable. But we must still wait with patience, even if it is the most difficult thing for us to do. Those who wait will be rewarded for their waiting.
Waiting is not passive. Although it takes all our will-power to do it, we must turn our focus on God. In the place of waiting, our praise (God-centred) has to be greater than our prayers (issue-centred) as we continue to read God’s Word, worship Him and journal (if that helps us to focus on who God still is in our lives).
WAIT MEANS REST
To rest is not about blunting or repressing our emotions, blocking out conflicting thoughts, or denying and downplaying the difficulties we are facing in life. It is to stop wrestling with God for control of outcomes and timelines. It is hard work but resting in God will enable us to wait better, and to outlast the waiting season.
Isaiah 28:16 referenced Jesus as the cornerstone and foundation of our faith, and that “the one who relies on it (referring to Jesus) will never be stricken with panic.” This means that we will not be constantly held captive by what is urgent but learn to focus on what is important to God. It also means to re-centre our trust in God. Sometimes, we can have such strong opinions on certain matters that they block our ability to sense God's counsel and direction.
To be still and know that He is God is to visualize that God is still in the throne room of our heart, and He is still steering us through the storms, the trials and the drought before us. But are we telling Him ‘You can do anything but this and that?’ Did Elijah tell God, ‘Anything but ravens or I will not eat!’ So to rest is to lay down our opinions and let God do His best work in our seasons of drought.
Today, will you say to the Lord, “I’m glad I’m enrolled in the School of Faith”?
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 21September 2024.
