{"id":4729,"date":"2023-04-30T12:05:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T17:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4729"},"modified":"2023-04-30T12:05:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T17:05:03","slug":"devotional-on-1-kings-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-kings-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

2015 – Mammoth Cave, KY<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nAre you a troublemaker?
\n1Kings 18: So it’s you, old troublemaker!
\nAhab has looked everywhere he can for Elijah but without success. Elijah had appeared out of nowhere, announced God’s judgment, and then disappeared for three years. Now he\u2019s back and Ahab’s first words to him are, “So it’s you, old troublemaker.” Elijah responds with the truth. He\u2019s no troublemaker. Instead, it\u2019s Ahab and his Baal-worshipping, God-insulting leadership of Israel that\u2019s the source of all the trouble. Of course, that\u2019s how it always is. We always want to blame others for our failures. Sometimes failure is blatant, as was Ahab’s. Other times it\u2019s unintentional, the result of human misunderstanding. Either way, the first thing we do at times like that is to look around for someone to blame. Ahab could have allowed the three years of drought and hardship to soften his heart. He could have realized that the idol Baal he worshiped couldn’t make it rain and therefore wasn’t worthy of his faithfulness. It\u2019s his sin that brought about the famine and it\u2019s his repentance that could end it. Instead, he becomes angry with Elijah for standing up to him. On one hand, I don’t want mirror Ahab’s refusal to see the truth when it\u2019s right in front of me. On the other hand, I need to remember that sometimes I may be called upon by God to serve in Elijah’s position; to be the one who\u2019s used to accomplish his purpose in the world. In that case, being called an “old troublemaker” isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
\nTake Away: It may be that not everyone will cheer when we are used by the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you a troublemaker? 1Kings 18: So it’s you, old troublemaker! Ahab has looked everywhere he can for Elijah but without success. Elijah had appeared out of nowhere, announced God’s judgment, and then disappeared for three years. Now he\u2019s back and Ahab’s first words to him are, “So it’s you, old troublemaker.” Elijah responds with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1471,7],"tags":[35,113,301,581],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14421,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions\/14421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}