"At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: 'O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.'"(1 Kings 18:3637)
The second point of Elijah's prayer that we need to incorporate into our own lives, is to acknowledge that we are God's servants. We are here, by the grace of God, to do His will. A servant, by definition, is one in the service of another. Elijah was humbling himself before God. The people around him were looking at him as some mystical prophet, one who had special powers to call down fire from heaven, but he wanted to be known as a servant. He wanted all the glory, for any miracle that happened, to be focused on God alone.
Jesus was the ultimate example of a servant, and He knew exactly who He was. . . He was God. He had the power to do anything He chose to do, and He chose to wash the feet of the disciples. They would not do it themselves because it was the job of a servant. These men who called Jesus "Teacher" and "Lord" had not even offered to wash His feet. Their words indicated they considered Him to be above them, but their actions had contradicted their words. The actions of Jesus showed the disciples that no one was to be considered better than anyone else. When He washed the feet of the disciples, He was giving them an example of a true servant. They were to humble themselves to meet the needs of the people with whom they came in contact. Humility is losing oneself in service to others, and Jesus served the disciples to teach them to serve.
Elijah's task, at this time, was to offer a sacrifice which would give God the opportunity to prove to Israel He was the one true, living God. The lesson Jesus taught was that even menial tasks can be given spiritual significance when we are servants of God. Elijah, who was merely a prophet, performed a task which brought great, and noticeable, glory to God. Jesus, the Savior, performed a task that would have been assigned to a servant. Some things we do will bring much recognition and some will be quiet and unobserved, but we must make sure, as servants, we give all the glory to the one who deserves it, our Lord Jesus Christ.
"The meek and lowly are fortunate for the whole wide world
belongs to them." (Matthew 5:5 TLB)