Stay Here
2 Kings 2:2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.Three times Elijah spoke to his friend and disciple Elisha, to test him. Perseverance, tenacity of purpose, a refusal to be content with anything short of the best, are indispensable conditions for the attainment of the highest possibilities of experience and service. And perpetually in our life’s discipline these words come back on us, stay here! Not that God desires us to stay, but because He desires each onward step to be the choice and act of our own will.
Stay here in Consecration.
— “You have given so much; is it not time that you refrained from further sacrifices? Sit down and rest, forbear from this strenuous following after.”Stay here in the Life of Prayer. — “It is a waste to spend so much time at the footstool of God. You have done more than most, desist from further intercession and supplication.”
Stay here in the attainment of the likeness of Christ. — “It will cost you so much, if all that is not Christ-like is to pass away from your life.”
Such voices are perpetually speaking to us all. And if we heed them, we are at once shut out of that crossing the Jordan, that rapturous joining with heaven, that reception of the double portion of the Spirit, which await those who have successfully stood the test. The law of the Christian life is always Advance; always leaving that which is behind; always reckoning that you have not attained; always following on to know the Lord, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the blessed Saviour. This as well as saying to the Spirit of God, as Elisha to Elijah, I will not leave you.
—F.B. Meyer