He was Faithful

Good Morning, let's start in 1 Kg 16:33b "and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him". This poor fella, that is not a position I would want to hold. This is a long chain of events, I want to cover. I am only going to land on a few key verses, and just fly over the rest of the events, if that is OK.
Now that we have seen the kind of person Ahab was, let's look in ch 17:1, and see what the consequences were, "And Elijah...said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word". Not only was Ahab punished for his wickedness, but everyone under him had to suffer also. And when we sin, without repentance, our families also suffer. God told Ahab that there would be no dew or rain until he repented, are you facing a drought?
A few things to mention here, first there was the widow who fed Elijiah. She only had enough food for one meal for her, and her son. However, because she obeyed God, and took care of the preacher, she had an endless supply of food, until the rain came. Not only do I want you to see that she was blessed because of her obedience, but more importantly (because most people forget it), she took care of God's business first, and then had faith He would take care of her, since there was not enough left to take care of herself. Then we see that her son became sick, and died, however "the prayer of a righteous man availeth much", and God allowed Elijah to bring him back to life.
The next big event is when Elijah challenged Ahab, and the priest of Baal to a dual of sorts. Each built an alter, placed a sacrifice on it, and prayed for their God to send fire to consume the sacrifice. After they had prayed, and preformed self-mutilation rituals for hours with no success, Elijah who had confidence that Baal was not real, and confidence the Jehovah is real, started making fun of the priest. Being a child of God should be a joy. Finally after a whole day of failure by the priest of Baal, it was Elijah's turn. But, then he raised the stakes, he soaked his sacrifice with water. He prayed one prayer, asking for God's blessing, and for God to prove Himself as the one and only true God. Guess what, fire came down from heaven, and not only consumed the sacrifice, but consumed the water, and utterly destroyed the entire alter, even the stones were consumed.
On seeing this in ch. 18:39, the people, and king Ahab repented of their sin. The priest that had led the people astray, were taken to the river (v40), and they were slain. In verse 41, God returns His blessing on Israel, when Elijah tells Ahab, "Get thee up, eat and drink: for there is a sound of abundance of rain." There wasn't just going to be rain, but an abundance. The blessing of God are always abundant, there is never a small blessing, never almost enough, or just enough, He always goes over and above what we can think, or imagine.
But, anytime we have a major victory in God's work, Satan is going to send trouble our way. Like a lot of other people, especially me, when the trouble came, in chapter 19, Elijah lost his faith. I don't understand how we can see God work in a miraculous way, and immediately lose our faith, but it happens. In verse 4 we see Elijah's response to the trouble, "O LORD, take away my life". Once again we see a great man of God, asking God to kill him, because he felt sorry for himself, because of the retaliation of Satan. I have been there, and I have experienced the same thing Elijah did, to a point anyway. In verses 5-7 we see where God sent an angel to minister to him. Hebrews 13:2 says, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares". I just wonder how many times God has sent an angel to minister to me, and I did not even know it. I'm sure you remember about a month ago I did a devotion about a friend of mine, who I believe was ministered to by an angel. It still happens folks. We are just too blind to see it. I am not saying worship angels, the way some people do. I am saying look at your life, so you can see those times that God has taken care of you.
God still had one more blessing for Elijah, after sending him to Mount Horeb (the mount of God). And listening to Elijah's pity party continue. God first got Elijah's attention with a wind strong enough to rip open the rocks, and then an earthquake, and a fire. There have been times it took that much for God to get my attention. Then we see the love of God in verse 12 "a still small voice". How I love to hear that voice, how sweet it is, how comforting it is. Then God gave Elijah another job to do. The thing is he had to face his fear, and he had to face what had gotten him depressed in order to do the job. In verse 19a, we see what Elijah did, and this is what I wanted to point out today. I have said all this other to say this, (v19a) "So he departed..."
Even though he was in despair, even though he was depressed, even though he was afraid, he had a job to do. God had commanded him to do something. Elijah, despite his emotional state, was faithful, and he did what God had asked him to do. He was able to hear God say "well done thou good and faithful servant", like Paul he was able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith", he also said "I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me". I also know there have been times in my life, I was not able to say those things. I continued my pity party instead of doing what God wanted. But, "He is faithful and just to forgive", and He gave me a second chance, (and a third, and a fourth...).
When faced with adversity, it is possible to continue to do what God asks us to do, if we are willing to allow Him to work in our lives.