What do you think of when someone mentions the name Elijah to you? Perhaps you think of a him getting taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind. Or perhaps of how his God set fire to the drenched offering when the servants of Baal were challenged to do likewise. Or perhaps you think of how it did not rain for three and a half years of rain. Whatever comes to mind it is easy to think of him as a great man of God. So why was he so great? Well let us turn to a few verses in James:

James 5v16-18: Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effetual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias [Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the Heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

The above verses tells us that Elijah was a human being just as we are. Like us he was subject to like passions (or as the New King James version puts it, "a nature like ours"). What we often don't think of is Elijah's moments of despair back in 1 Kings 19, when he told God, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life." Elijah wasn't some sort of superman, he was human just like us. He had his struggles just as we do. What made him different was that, as we read above, he was a man of prayer, he kept close to God. The only reason the offering was set on fire was because he prayed to God. We, like Elijah, can be great men [and women] for God, if we get down on our knees in prayer and ask for His guidance. If during times of discouragement we confess our fears to God.

Have you ever looked at a fellow believer and thought that person has got it made. From the outside they look super-spiritual as if they haven't a failure at all. It would be easy to do that with Elijah if the Bible never told us about his moments of despair. Every Christian on this earth has their struggles, each of us makes mistakes, its what we do about them that matters. Do we try and continue in our own strength, or do we take them to the Lord in prayer. So next time you look at someone and think they have got it all, pray for them, because I can guarentee you that they will have their struggles as the devil tries to knock them down, and the trouble is few will be praying for them, as like you, they will think they're fine and don't need prayer.

So to conclude, like me and you, Elijah was only a human being. The reason he made a difference was because he prayed effectually and fervently, what stops us from doing likewise?

All quotes are from the King James version of the Bible unless otherwise specified.