‘What doest thou here, Elijah’, 1 Kgs. 19. 9
When God asks a question, often His purpose is to get the individual to think about the answer for themselves. Whilst God knows the answer, He wants us to reflect, perhaps even to do a spiritual ‘stocktake’, assessing what we do for the Lord and why we do it. Such was the case here with Elijah. He was not in ‘a good place’ physically, emotionally, or mentally. Despite the cry of the people on Carmel, 18. 39, Elijah saw that things had not really changed, for Jezebel had now merely redoubled her efforts to exterminate the prophets of God, and particularly him, 19. 2, 3. He felt that he was no ‘better than … [his] fathers’, v. 4. Rather than consult the God whom he had proved at Cherith, Zarephath, and Carmel, Elijah chose to flee. However, in wondrous grace, God came to Elijah to speak with him and to encourage him. Perhaps there is a glimpse here of the work of the Holy Spirit as Elijah is brought to appreciate the truth of his situation, as distinct from his perception of it.
For many of us, 2024 was a difficult year. Some of the developments we had hoped for, and worked for, have not materialized quite as we had hoped. However, may we take courage from Elijah’s situation. We do not always see ‘the big picture’. We do not see all that God is doing.
In the work of Precious Seed, we have been encouraged by the growing overseas interest in the magazine articles and books. Indeed, over 55% of our magazines go abroad to support the Lord’s servants and people. We have agreements to translate our materials into nine languages and we are seeing some of that teaching printed and distributed in India and elsewhere. The major challenge is that our funding comes largely from the Lord’s people in the UK, and the spiritual decline in the homeland is beginning to impact upon what we can do. Our financial reserves have dwindled significantly, and we face some hard decisions ahead as we try and steer the work forward until the Lord comes. However, be assured that we will make every effort to maintain our core work of the magazine and books as long as we can.
Some of you may have noticed that two of our trustees have also left us, Stuart Scammell and Stephen Baker. Whilst Stuart had not served with us as long as Stephen, he brought a helpful perspective and contribution to the Trust. We are thankful that he will continue to contribute, albeit not as a trustee. Stephen Baker has served with us for twenty years. In that time, he has written articles and contributed to our books, written answers for our Q&A page, edited the Reports section (now discontinued), as well as editing the YPS magazine since November 2009. We wish them both well in what the Lord has called them to do, and we register our thanks and acknowledge that they will be missed.
As we all get older, we recognize the need to recruit new trustees, and we welcome Graeme Andrews and Robert Davies. Please pray for the work, those who give so much of their time to maintain it, and for its continuing value spiritually.
John Bennett
Chairman and General Editor
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