1 Kings 18

I almost set my roommate on fire once.

I shared a small house with my friend and bandmate Connor during my sophomore and junior year of college. For both of us, it was the first home we had away from our parents. Nice old house. Cheap rent. We filled it with cheap and/or hand-me-down furniture and built a fire pit in the back yard. One night we wanted to start a bonfire, but we couldn’t get it to light – you see where this is going. I doused the pile of wood with a decent amount of gasoline (I will take full responsibility for this stupidity, but Connor was also on board with the plan) and Connor went to light it. The whole back yard…what’s the right word…exploded. Connor either jumped back or was blown back at least six feet. I was fine. He was fine, too, for the record.

²⁴ And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.”

1 Kings 18:24, ESV

Had Connor and I doused our fire pit with water instead of gasoline that night, we would have never had a fire. Presence of water typically means the absence of fire. In 1 Kings 18, we read about Elijah in a situation with the prophets of Baal. The short version of this is that God and Baal were both going to have an opportunity to start a fire to consume an offering. Baal gives no proof of hearing or even existing. But Elijah drenches the offering to God and the surrounding area with twelve jars of water, then calls upon the Lord.

³⁷ Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” ³⁸ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹ And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

1 Kings 18:37-39, ESV

Our God answered by fire. He is God. If He can set a soggy offering ablaze, then He is powerful enough to handle the things we pray about that seem impossible. You may think your bonfire is doused with water, but watch out. You might find yourself blown away by the flames. The Lord, he is God.