Christian Devotional – July 4, 2020

Double Portion – #2

As we continue looking at the life of Elisha, we see the character of who he is and how completely he devoted himself to following the Lord and Elijah. Read 1 Kings 19:19-21.

So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.
1 Kings 19:19‭-‬21 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/1ki.19.19-21.NASB

Elijah came and found Elisha and called him into ministry and service with him. What was the way Elisha responds? He dropped everything and ran after him. He only had one request. He asked to be able to say good bye to his current life. He made a complete and total break with everything that he was in the past so that he could follow Elijah completely with no regrets and no reservations.

When we are called to follow God, do we leave everything as quickly and readily as Elisha did? Are we willing to draw a line in the sand and never look back? Elisha wanted to do something special to show that that was the case for him and so he said good bye to everyone and made a big show of destroying anything and everything that tied him to his old life.

He was fully and completely committed to following Elijah and the Lord after this point. Do we make that distinction and separate ourselves completely from our past lives? If not we should recommit ourselves to that today.