1 Kings 17:7 – “After a while, the wadi dried up…”
You always know when an artist is really talented. The painting draws you into the work. You either feel as if you are there, or you feel like you would like to be there. Depending on where you are in your life, it can actually create a yearning so deep, that you begin to visualize yourself in that place. Imagine now that you are very thirsty. Parched beyond the description of words, you come upon a brook of pure clear water. All you do is sit there and drink until your being is completely satisfied. Then you just sit there enjoying the sound of a trickle. You sleep and then do it all over again. You can’t leave. You don’t want to leave. Then one day that brook dries up. No water. No sound. No reason to stay. Elijah has been enjoying his journey by the brook. He had given God’s word to Ahab, then God took him to his own private oasis. Now the brook was no more and it was time to move on. Brooks is much like life. There are times when we’ve enjoyed the pleasure of something, and then it ends. It’s then time to move on. A really comfortable place can create a really complacent person. God had called Elijah to anything but a place of comfort. Brooks feed you for the place you’re at in life, but they’re not meant to be your final dwelling place in life. They’re meant to give you what you need for the moment you’re in. Never get too comfortable with any brook. It’s not going to last. One day it will dry up. I’ve seen people try to ride out the drought, hoping it will come back. Sometimes it does just enough to keep them in complacency. Some will absolutely fight to leave. They’d rather stay in a dry place than go experience God’s next move. Never stay at a dried-up brook. Things can be going great, but you can’t stay in that place because you may be the one that dries it up. Move when God says to move. Enjoy it. Be blessed by it. Draw from it. But when God says it’s time to leave, leave. Leave it and move on. Never make any brook your home.