I Kings 18:44

Elijah was a man who hoped perfectly; hoped against hope until the abundant answer came. He continued, in the very face of darkness and perplexity, to expect, because the very God of hope lived in him and expected through him. And he was not ashamed, for it came to pass the seventh time his servant said, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (v. 44), and in a little while the heaven was black with clouds, and there was a great rain!

Can you count God faithful when only the still small voice speaks? When there is neither wind, earthquake, nor fire? Can you start when you see the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand? Can you say: “ ‘There is nothing,’ but I wait on Thee. My mind is peculiarly in the dark regarding the way I am to take, but Thou knowest. Unto Thee do I look up!”

Thank God Elijah was “just like us”! He sat under a tree, complained to God, and expressed his unbelief—just as we have often done. Yet this was not the case at all when he was truly in touch with God. “Elijah was a man just like us,” yet “he prayed earnestly.” The literal meaning of this in the Greek is magnificent: instead of saying, “earnestly,” it says, “He prayed in prayer.” In other words, “He kept on praying.” The lesson here is that you must keep praying.

Climb to the top of Mount Carmel and see that great story of faith and sight. After Elijah had called down fire from heaven to defeat the prophets of Baal, rain was needed for God’s prophecy to be fulfilled. And the man who could command fire from heaven could bring rain using the same methods. We are told, “Elijah . . . bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42), shutting out all sights and sounds. He put himself in a position, beneath his robe, to neither see nor hear what was happening.

The fields were parched for lack of rain. The foliage of the green bay tree wilted in the sun. The earth was dry like powder, and gray dust covered leaf and blade. There was no freshness anywhere. As far as eye could see, nature seemed to have dressed herself in sackcloth and ashes. We have never seen such drought as that which had fallen upon Israel in the days of Elijah the Tishbite. There had been no rain for three and a half years. The fields had not yielded their increase, and little children cried for food.

Elijah was on Mount Carmel praying for rain. “Go,” he said to his servant, “and look out toward the sea and tell me if any sign of rain appears.” Seven times he went and surveyed the western horizon, where the sky seemed to drop into the glittering Mediterranean. The seventh time he returned and said, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”