We Pursue God Even When We’re Alone

Story

Following God feels wonderful when your whole family believes. Families that worship together go to church and build family traditions and community with other believers. This experience makes us feel safe and protected. We get to have a sense of belonging that we can sometimes take for granted.

On the other hand, following God feels different when you're the only one doing it. Everyone likes it when Christians help, but there will be times that being a Christian will make you very uncomfortable. Most of the time it won’t be because of the good things you do, but because of the bad things you won’t do. When all of your friends think you’re spoiling things because you’re a Christian, what will you do?

The prophet Elijah was used to being alone. During his day, the people were led by the wicked King Ahab and his wife Queen Jezebel. They supported and endorsed the worship of false gods and hurt people that worshiped the One True God of Israel. This made men like Elijah used to being alone, since even if people disagreed with King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, helping Elijah could get them arrested or worse! This was because Elijah would tell the truth about what God was saying, no matter what others thought of him.

One time, Elijah proclaimed God was bringing a drought on the land of Israel. When the rain stopped, Ahab and Jezebel sent people to find Elijah and arrest him. After three years of drought, Elijah turned up again to challenge the gods of Ahab and Jezebel at a place called Mount Carmel. (Spoiler Alert: God shows up and wins the challenge.) The false gods that Israel were worshiping were shown to be fake. Instead of repenting, King Ahab and Jezebel vow to kill Elijah. He thought he won the day and that Israel would return to God, but instead he found himself running for his life!

Bible

Read 1 Kings 18–19. Note that some of the content may be somewhat heavy for young readers. You’re the parents, use your own judgment on what to omit.

Think

God knew how to speak in big ways! But when Elijah was all alone and felt like he was the only one following God, God spoke to him in a still, small voice. Do you ever wish God would speak to you? How do you wish He would do it?

There will be times when you feel alone because of your faith in God. Sometimes God will let you in on other parts of the story to help you (like Him telling Elijah that he wasn’t the one left), and other times He will want you to trust what you know about Him already. Those times in your life are coming. We read the Bible so when it’s our time to go through them, we do it with God!

Do Something

Moses and Elijah both spent lots of time alone with God. If you’d like to get to know Him, you can, too. The more you practice the things we do to get to know God (reading the Bible, praying, being with other believers, etc.), the more confident you’ll be when you’re tested like Elijah. Parents, the best example for your children is for them to see you practice this in your own way. There’s no hard and fast rule on how each of us should develop our own relationship with God, but as each of us wants our kids to have life-long faith, the best thing we can do is to genuinely pursue God!

Pray

Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus. Help us to pursue You even when we feel alone. We ask You to meet us in those lonely places. Sometimes life is confusing, and things can change quickly. Help us know You so we’ll be able to be strong during uncertain times. Amen.