Our Answer with Fire

"How long will you hesitate between two opinions?" Elijah asked as he stood high on Mt. Carmel before Ahab, 450 prophets of Baal, and all of Israel.

Then he offered them a test; a trial by fire...
Two similar piles of wood, two prepared oxen for sacrifice.

Elijah politely let the prophets of Baal go first as he sat back from morning to evening watching them foolishly seek power from their god of the sun. Surely they believed their god could bring the fire.

Yet nothing happened.

Now it was Elijah's turn. His confidence in God was bold and awe-inspiring. He stood and proclaimed...
“Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that at Your word I have done all these things. Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that You, Yahweh, are God and that You have turned their hearts back.”
1 Kings 18:36-37

But only AFTER he had the people douse his sacrifice with gallons and gallons of water... the one thing these people considered MOST valuable after three years of drought! How could he be so lavish with what they lacked? How could he ask them to give up what they feared was the last of their life-sustaining resources?

Surely this man was crazed.
Or simply filled with faith in his God.

Then Yahweh’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, “Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God!”
1 Kings 18:38-39

"How long will you hesitate between two opinions?" Elijah asked. Will you depend on what is seen, what is counted and what is tangible? Will you hold onto what is running low, fearing there won't be enough?

Our God, who is able to Answer with Fire, will provide a much needed rain of relief... but only after He consumes what we let go... what we must give sacrificially to show our hearts committed to Him.

Let us not be known for hesitating between two opinions. Rather, let us boldly choose to go all in with our hearts, boldly proclaiming as Elijah did, that our faith is in the One True God.