Elijah And Elisha: Commitment (Daily Devotional)

Hi everyone, welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much once again for giving us this opportunity to spend a few minutes in God’s word and to pray together. We have been talking about mentoring. Today, we talk about Elijah and Elisha and the commitment that they had with each other. 1 Kings chapter 19, verses 19 through 21, ‘So Elijah went from there and found Elisha’s son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So, Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.’ Elijah and Elisha, probably were some of the most prominent prophets of Israel. They both served in the northern kingdom of Israel and the story of Elijah and Elisha maybe one of the most obvious stories of mentorship in the bible it tells us both the role of a protégée and a mentor. In his first encounter with Elijah, Elisha was willing to let go of his occupation, of his family, of his life that he had built thus far, in order to follow a man that he met only once. Elijah the prophet, placed his cloak over the shoulders of Elisha the farmer. At God’s command, Elijah was summoning Elisha to leave the work on the farm and take on another work to be the prophet in Israel. Elisha was to be Elijah’s apprentice. This is not a small request as it will require great commitment from Elisha. Elisha made his commitment clear. He brought an end to his old occupation by killing his oxen, burning to plough to cook the meat and sharing it with his family and neighbors. They joined in recognizing the change in his life. Elisha wanted to show God and everyone that he was committed to the task ahead of him and Elisha was committed not to look back again. Discipleship requires a willingness to be taught and redirected. It requires a commitment to letting the Holy Spriit work in our lives. Hesitation and looking back are not going to work. Either God is our only comfort or we will try in vain to find comfort somewhere else. Discipleship doesn’t always demand a career change but it does require placing everything in God’s service. Taking a step of faith requires a full commitment to being discipled. We are not saying we have to leave our jobs, our professions and join full time ministry. All we are saying is that when God calls us, are we willing to let go of our comforts? Like Elisha, do we need to put away things in the past to be committed to being discipled by the Spirit? Let us pray, Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for the word we have studied. Just like how Elisha let go of the things that he had already had in him, let go of his profession, he let go of all the benefits just to do your service, I pray Holy Spirt that you will enable us to let go of the things that really don’t need to be there in our lives and I pray that we will hold onto you and know that everything that we do should be aligned to your word and to your promises. We thank you for what you are doing in our lives, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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