Does your day feel overwhelming? What does a day’s work look like to you? My view definitely contains less now than it did as a young adult. I once worked, against my will, a twenty-three hour day, but I can’t even imagine how one day in Elijah’s life could have contained as much activity as what is reported about a fateful day on Mt. Carmel. I don’t know what time his day began or ended but he single-handedly, by God’s grace, made fools of the Ba’al and Ashera prophets by challenging them to call on Ba’al for a sign. They begged him the entire day right up to the time of the evening offering–no answer came.

Then Elijah took his turn preparing for God’s glory to appear. He prepared a meal that would be impossible to light a fire under. But God lit the fire and consumed not only the meat, but also the wood, the stones, and the dust. I think that would have been a great place to call it a day, but the Lord wasn’t ready for that–there was still much to do.

Elijah had the 450 Ba’al prophets seized and taken to Kishon where they were slaughtered. Would he be able to rest after that? No, not yet, there was a storm on the horizon that had not been seen in three years. Elijah had sent word to Ahab to get off the mountain while he could. Ahab made for Jezreel by way of his chariot.

“The hand of ADONAI [the Lord] was on Eliyahu [Elijah]; he tucked up his clothing and ran ahead of Ach’av [Ahab] to the entrance of Yizre’el [Jezreel].” (1 Kings 18:46) The distance Elijah ran is estimated at about seventeen miles–over half a marathon–at the end of the day. Does your day look overwhelming? With God in the lead, you will accomplish great things.