You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything…

I can still hear Aaron Tippin bellowing that song out on the radio back in the early 90’s, using that strong southern twang of his. The lyrics make sense, but we have to be careful, because you can stand for the wrong thing. So, let’s see if we can twist the lyrics a bit, how about:

“You’ve got to stand for God’s things, or you’ll fall evil things.”

The world is very troubled place right now. Just go to any major news website and you’ll instantly be confronted by a myriad of depressing headlines that will make you just want to run to the woods and hide. It can be very depressing and leave you with little or no hope to look at all the corruption and trouble. There seems to be no end in sight.

This doesn’t just happen to us common folk either, it also happened to Biblical prophets as well. Take the prophet Elijah for instance. (Refer to 1 Kings 18 and 19 for the full story).

Elijah was a prophet of God during King Ahab’s reign over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Ahab and his wife Jezebel strongly promoted the worship of Baal (pagan storm god of fertility). Elijah stood up to all of the Baal worshipers by challenging them to a test. 450 of the Baal religious leaders would pray to Baal to fire up an animal sacrifice and Elijah alone would pray to God (Yahweh) to do the same. The Baal worshipers tried all day long in very dramatic fashion, but the sacrifice never caught fire. Then Elijah prepared his offering (he even had them cover it in water), once Elijah prayed to God, fire came from the heavens and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice. Elijah then had the 450 Baal prophets struck down to eliminate the further spreading of Baal worship.

Elijah took a strong stand against insurmountable numbers and odds and overcame them all. He did so because he put his faith in God alone. He was a prophet of God after a great victory… he should have been riding high and full of faith and confidence, shouldn’t he?

When Ahab told Jezebel about what Elijah had done, she became furious and declared she would have Elijah killed by the next afternoon. Elijah, feeling worn out from the previous events, feeling like the fight against the pagans would never end, and feeling alone in the battle, fled for his life. But God came to him and assured him he was not alone. God let him know that there were other believers out there that would help him in his mission, and most importantly, that God was with him.

So here we have an example of a great prophet of God, feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. Do not feel ashamed when you feel that way also. But know this, you are not alone. God is with you. Your fellow believers are with you.

So when you take a stand for God’s things. You have God and all his saints standing with you. Stand strong and do not fall victim to agreeing with the things of society. You can take a stand for God.