“Then I Will Come With You”

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

1 Kings 19:19-21

As a missionary, Elisha left many things behind to follow God. Before God called him into service through Elijah, we don’t know much about Elisha – except that he was a farmer. When the prophet Elijah met him in the field where he was plowing, he threw his cloak over Elisha’s shoulders (the symbol of his role as a prophet) and called him to follow. With only a request to kiss the mother and father goodbye, Elisha immediately sacrificed his oxen, burned his plowing equipment, said good-bye to his parents – and followed Elijah.

Though no many of us are called to leave family and friends behind to serve God as fulltime missionaries, God wants all of us to follow Him and to “live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord as assigned to us, just as God has called us.” As we have often experienced, serving God can be thrilling and challenging no matter where we are – even if we never leave home.

God will show us how to serve Him wherever we are.

Our Daily Bread – February 15, 2018