This past week we studied the life of Elijah to gain inspiration into the qualities he expressed that allowed him to be one with God and to do God’s will even in the face of overwhelming opposition.
The meeting started with Hymn 166 and continued and with reading of Elijah’s experience on the mountaintop (I Kings, chapter 19) when he was in hiding from Jezebel’s wrath and God spoke to him with a still, small voice.
Thinking about Elijah’s experiences, the key qualities we uncovered were:
• Being passionate in his devotion to God – He cared about the things of God more than any pleasure the world could offer. Materialism had no hook in him. Elijah was not torn between loving his family or job or hobbies and following God’s direction. He was all in!
• Obedient – when he heard God’s voice, he did as he was commanded. He didn’t ask why or doubt but he acted as he was directed to act.
• Unwavering and independent – it didn’t matter that he was the only one left who still worshiped the God of Abraham, he stood with Principle.
• Persistent - When the old devil interfered by claiming the widow’s son had died, Elijah prayed earnestly three times for that boy until the boy’s life was restored. He prayed seven times until the rain clouds formed after a 3 ½ year drought.
• Intolerant of evil – Probably the most important lesson we can learn from Elijah was how he was fiercely intolerant of anything unlike God. It was brought up that humanly this intolerance might be described as being a “mean,” “angry” or “unloving” person -- especially when Elijah killed all the prophets of Baal in I Kings chapt. 18. However, understood spiritually, we can see that he was completely intolerant of divided affections (breaking the 1st commandment) and wicked actions or practices – anything that would try to separate a person from God. The Old Testament is filled with examples of the Israelites disobeying God’s command to not associate with or to destroy those who worshiped other Gods – a disobedience which always proved disastrous to them as a people. This is critical to understand because too often Christian Scientists strive so hard to be “loving” and in doing so they end up condoning or worse protecting evil or error rather than destroying it. In Science and Health it says: “Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God.” We can’t protect or reform evil and it’s dangerous to find oneself in such an unprincipled position.