Scripture: James 5:17–18
“Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly…” — James 5:17, KJV.
When we read about Elijah, it is easy to place him in a category we believe we can never belong to. He prayed, and rain ceased, he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain. Fire fell when he called upon God, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot. How could one man’s life carry such evidence of God’s power?
Before we conclude that Elijah must have been a different kind of human being, the Scripture through James gives a revelation that “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are.” He could feel frightened, exhausted, or overwhelmed by what was happening around him. Elijah, the man who stood before the prophets of Baal later fled because of Jezebel’s threat. Beneath a broom tree, he became so discouraged that he asked God to take his life.
Scripture allows us to see these moments. We see a man who needed God’s help as deeply as we do. Yet God worked through him. This revelation should awaken something in us. We have spent so much time admiring what God did through others that we sometimes struggle to believe He can work through us. We celebrate their testimonies, recite their prayers, and speak of their exploits, but when we look at ourselves, all we see is what is missing. We give excuses like “I am too timid”, “my background is too ordinary”, “I have struggled too much”, “people like me do not do things like that.”
But Elijah was a man like us. How long will we keep using our humanity as an explanation for why God cannot do much through us? We speak of our weaknesses as if Elijah had none and admire his faith as if he had no fears to overcome. If God could work through a man who knew exhaustion and discouragement, we must stop dismissing what He can do through us. There are responsibilities before us that exceed our strength, but have we taken them to God, or have we already decided they are impossible?
You can bring your questions and challenges to God without surrendering to defeat. The One who calls you knows the strength you have and the strength you will need from Him.
James tells us that Elijah prayed earnestly. We cannot overlook those words while longing for the answers he received. How much of what we call impossible have we actually prayed about earnestly? How often have we spent hours discussing a situation, worrying over it, and imagining the worst, yet given little time to bringing it before God? Elijah’s humanity should encourage us, but his prayer life should challenge us. If we believe the same God hears us, that belief must find expression in our willingness to pray.
Let it never be said that we admired Elijah’s life but refused to surrender our own. May we give God more than our amazement at what He did through another man. May we give Him our lives, fully and willingly, for His own purposes. You are an ordinary man, but when your life is surrendered to the Almighty, your limitations cannot set the boundaries of what He can do through you.
Prayer
Father, I refuse to conclude that little can come out of my life because I am an ordinary person. You knew every weakness in Elijah, yet You worked mightily through him. Help me believe that You can work through me too.
Almighty God, I place my ordinary life in Your hands. Accomplish through me what I could never accomplish by myself, so that those who see it will know that You have done it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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