PUSH For Christ In 2003 (Pray Until Something Happens)

home field advantage, because Mt. Carmel was believed to be Baal’s dwelling place. Plus, Baal was believed to be the god who sent the lightning. To top everything else off, they were to receive the kickoff without even having to toss the coin, because Elijah told them, they could go first. They knew once the first lightning bolt hit, this game would be over. They would have won the Super Bowl Of the Gods.

The referee blew the whistle at 9:00 that morning and the game was on. The prophets of Baal said short prayers and long prayers. They sang some songs, and did a dance, and did some more prayers. They gave testimonies of how the fire was about to fall, so get ready for it to happen. They prayed some more. The clock went from 9:00 to 10:00 to 11:00 to 12:00. There was nothing from Baal.

After three hours, Elijah’s sense of humor began to get the best of him. He started to talk some trash to them. He said, “maybe you guys are not yelling loud enough. Baal may be in deep thought about something. If you were a little louder you might get his attention.

Then he said, “you know maybe he’s busy.” ( The actual Hebrew mean, maybe he’s going to the bathroom to relieve himself.) Then he said, “then again he might have left this mountain and went on a trip. If he didn’t go anywhere, he could be sleeping.” Now Elijah had to be one tough dude to be talking trash to 450 guys all by himself.

The prophets Baal looked at him with disgust, and said, “man we’re just getting started with having church.” They started praying as loud as they could, they started cutting themselves to pour out their blood as an offering to Baal, they screamed and yelled as they did dances jumping up and down. They prophesied that any minute fire was going to come down and grant their request. They had faith in Baal, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Baal would answer. The clocked ticked, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, and finally 3:00. For six hours they had been PUSHing.

It is not enough to simply Pray Until Something Happens. You have to have faith in something that can truly make a difference or your efforts will be in vain. The prophets of Baal were sincere in their prayers, their dances, and their actions. But the sincerity of their faith could not make Baal a reality. Simply believing something is true, does not make it true. It only makes you sincerely wrong. But sincerely wrong is still wrong.

Sometimes people will say, you just have to believe in yourself. But our Bible takes us a step further and says our faith and our strength is not to be found simply in ourselves. In our New Testament reading, we find a prayer for us all in which it says in Ephes. 3:16 (NIV) “I pray that out of God’s glorious riches God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,” It’s not that we have this secret source within us, but rather the power of God through His Spirit can give us the strength to PUSH to do what we have to do.

The only reason Baal did not answer is that Baal did not exist. The backup plans we have, are not acts of God. They are just the little petty thoughts in our minds to get something God has said no to for the time being.
At 3:00, which was the time the people should have been offering a sacrifice to the true God, it was Elijah’s turn.