And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and nights unto Horeb and the mount of God.
I Kings 19:7-8
In these verses we have a wonderful picture of the Christian life. Elijah had been discouraged to the point of wanting to die, but an angel of the Lord came to him and gave him food and water and encouraged him. In these verses, the angel of the Lord appeared to him a second time to tell him to “arise and eat” because “the journey is too great for thee”. The journey is too great for thee. We who claim the name of Christ have set out to live a Christian life. No matter how strong of a Christian we are, the journey is too great for us. No matter how much we think that we can resist sin or have overcome sin, the journey is still too great for us. We simply can not live even the most basic Christian life in our own strength.
Because the Lord knew that the journey would be too great for Elijah (and us), He told him to “arise and eat”. We need to arise and eat every day. We need to eat spiritual food every day- the New Testament phrases it “give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). When we go without eating food for even a day or two (or in some cases, an hour or two), we start to get weak. So it is with our spiritual food- if we go to long without it, we start to get weak and we start to stumble. We need our “daily bread” from God and His Word.
After Elijah ate, the Bible tells us that he was able to go to Horeb and he went “in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights”. The food that God gives us is supernatural. Now, I don’t think that we can get our spiritual food once every forty days and be fine, but the food that He gives us will sustain us. There are things in the Bible that I learned months ago that I am still meditating on and still “feeding on”.
What a blessing it is to have all the spiritual food we need available to us. And we need it, because the journey is always going to be too great for us.
Justified Freely 
Posted by Debbie Feller on June 25, 2010 at 7:22 am
Thank you so much for encouraging us to eat, that we won’t be able to handle the journey without it. (and it’s calorie free! :)) It also gets addictive, in a good way . . .the more we lean on Him and take in His word, the more we crave it and have to have it. He even helps us with that desire! God bless you Ben!
Posted by justifiedfreely on June 26, 2010 at 6:19 am
“It’s calorie free!” – I love it! And I had never thought about it being addictive, but that is true. I know that I need to crave it even more.
Posted by Moore to ponder on June 25, 2010 at 9:07 am
I really liked this entry. That is such an encouraging account. When Jesus was tempted by the Devil, He replied that “man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”. A lot of times when I am praying the Lord’s Prayer and get to the petition “Give us this day our daily bread, I pause and think about that.
Posted by justifiedfreely on June 26, 2010 at 6:20 am
I know that in my own life, I can trace almost every one of my “major” failures to a failure to get my “daily bread”. It’s so vitally important, but something I have neglected so often. You really never can get enough of it.
Posted by Linda Kruschke on June 25, 2010 at 11:55 am
Ben, Well written post. Yes the journey is too great for me. When I tried to make the journey of this life without Christ, I failed miserably and was overcome by sorrow and discouragement. Even now when I try to make the journey of a single day without His Word, I can become easily discouraged. But with Christ, with His Word ever present, I can make the journey in His strength. Peace, Linda
Posted by justifiedfreely on June 26, 2010 at 6:24 am
I like the thought of His Word being “ever present”. That really does seem to be the key. And that I what I have been trying to work on in my life. I want to have His Word in my heart and in my mind at all times. My dad has, for years, read the Bible through every 60 days- 6 times a year. And he says he does that so that his mind will be saturated with God’s Word. I like that thought. Thanks!
Posted by Linda Kruschke on June 26, 2010 at 9:41 am
Wow! I just started to read through the Bible in a year and thought that was pretty ambitious! To read it every 60 days is beyond my comprehension, but it would lead to your mind being saturated with His Word. Peace, Linda