A Matter of Choice
Missionary Amy Carmichael wrote, “Everyday we live we have to choose whether we shall follow in the way of Ahab of Elijah. If we put self first, whether in great things or small, we are like Ahab. And the habit grows with life till we end as Ahab ended. The king died and was brought to Samaria that poor little hill which never saw anything glorious till One, who was wearied by His journey, sat on the side of the well there.”
Like most of us, Richard and Evelyn Forrest came to a point where they had to make a choice. The place of temptation did not come as they helped to start a small mountain school in Golden Valley, North Carolina. Nor did it surface a few years later when that school was relocated to Toccoa Falls, Georgia. It came after all of this when they were settled and enjoying their ministry and vocation.
Suddenly there was an offer on the table—one that would have required them to move far away from the school that they had nurtured and the people they loved. And with that offer came the promise of financial stability—something they had never had. There would have been fresh opportunities along with titles that would lead to recognition and power in the educational field. Without a doubt they would have been “set for life.†But they turned the offer down. For one brief moment, Richard Forrest allowed himself the luxury of thinking how he could provide for his wife. They would move and she would never have to wear another donated dress.
“An all important thing for us to know,” wrote Evelyn Forrest, “is our own standing in Christ.†Richard and Evelyn Forrest knew “who they were” and what they had been given to do. But this very knowledge on its own was not enough to settle the issue. There had to be something deeper and greater than a simple knowledge or calling. There had to be a personal love and sincere surrender to the Savior or their knees would have buckled at every turn.
When we have a personal and intimate knowledge of who we are in Christ and what He has done for us, we will not be quick to turn to the path that Ahab took. Instead, we will choose the way Elijah took, which is the way to our personal Mt. Carmel.
Taken from the online devotional book A Present Peace © 2010 tfchistory.com. The quote from Evelyn Forrest was taken from her class notes.