Go Back To Go Forward – 1 Kings 19:15 | Steve's Bible Meditations

“Then the Lord told him, Go back the same way you came…” (1 Kings 19:15, NLT)

Sometimes we can lose focus on how God is working even though He has done many extraordinary things in our lives.

The prophet Elijah seemed to lose his focus when Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him. Elijah was in such fear for his life that he fled to the wilderness even though he had just called fire down from heaven and called on God for rain that ended a three-year drought in Israel (vs. 18:39, 43-44).

In spite of these and many other miracles that God performed through Elijah, he seemed to grow confused and despondent about how God was working through all that had happened or was happening in his life: “Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die” (vs. 4).

After Elijah finished complaining, God told him to go back the same way he came.

God renewed Elijah’s commission and directed Elijah to retrace his steps back to the place where he had strayed from God’s mission and to move forward from there.

If you become confused or don’t understand about how God is at work in your life, follow the strategy that God used with Elijah–go back to go forward.

Sometimes we need to revisit where we came from. To know where God is leading us, sometimes we need to remember how we got here.

If you seem to be out-of-sync with God’s plans and purposes, then go back to the place in your life where you know God was at work and move forward with God from there.

“But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” (Philippians 3:12, NLT).