Elijah and the Fire

1 Kings 18

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called First Kings (1 Kings). It is the first of two books in the Bible that tell us about the kings of Israel.

We begin with a man name Elijah. Elijah was a friend of God. He loved God and knew God can do anything. That’s why Elijah trusted God.


But the king of the land, King Ahab, did not trust God. King Ahab believed in a pretend God. He even had a big statue of him. The king had a lot of people who told him over and over that his pretend god had super powers and that his statue could do anything. The king thought that was great.


But Elijah knew that it was NOT great. Elijah knew that there is only one true God and everyone needed to know. So, Elijah said to the king, “Hey, king, let’s do a test. We will each set up an altar then we will pray. The god who starts a fire on the altar is the real God—the one true God. Everyone agreed, and Elijah let King Ahab go first.”


So, King Ahab and his big group of people prayed to their pretend god. They shouted, but the pretend god did not send fire.


So Elijah said, “Maybe he’s sleeping. Maybe you should shout louder.”



And that’s what King Ahab and his people did. They shouted louder and louder, but their pretend god still didn’t answer with fire.


 Now it was Elijah’s turn. Elijah trusted God and believed that God can do anything. So, Elijah went to the altar. He had people pour water all over it so it would be really hard to light on fire, then he prayed to God.


“God, we believe You are the one true God. We believe You can do anything! Show Your power God so all the people here can see that You are the one true God and You have the power to do anything.”


Do you know what happened? God did it! God sent fire down on the wet altar, then everyone knew that God is the one true God! Wow! God is SO powerful! God can do anything! When we remember that God can do anything, it helps us trust God. I can trust God, and you can trust God.






Bible Paraphrase: I trust in God. I am not afraid. —Psalm 56:11, NIrV

Text Truth: God can do anything.



Family Devotional

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” —1 Kings 18:38-39

Our Bible story was about how God can do ANYTHING. He really can do ANYTHING! And Elijah wanted all of the people to know that God is the one true God and can do ANYTHING. That’s why Elijah prayed for God to send down fire. He wanted the people to see and believe. God being able to do ANYTHING is another reason why we can trust God!

I trust in God. I am not afraid. —Psalm 56:11, NIrV

With your family, make a list of things you want to say to God. It can be ANYTHING! God loves it when we talk to Him about everything.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, thank You for always being with us and hearing us when we talk to You. Today, [family member’s name] wants to say (read what they listed), and [family member’s name] wants to say (read what they listed), and . . . (continue with each family member). We believe we can trust You with everything and that You can do ANYTHING. You are awesome, God! We love You, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

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Story illustrations are the copyright of Sweet Publishing and licensed by FreeBibleimages (http://freebibleimages.org) for free download under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 3.0 unported licence.
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