Like Passions

2 Kings 1:15
"And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king."
After Elijah has called down fire from Heaven, not once, but twice, to destroy a troop of fifty soldiers each time, after he stated that fire would be proof of his status as a man of God, after all the amazing miracles Elijah had seen prior to this, from Mount Carmel to food in the wilderness, to the provision for the widow and the bringing back of her son to life, after all of this, God's angel still reminds Elijah, "be not afraid of him". Most of us would probably like to think that after a life like Elijah's, there would be absolutely nothing that could scare us. No situation or mere mortal man could pose a threat because we know God is on our side.
However Elijah still had to be reminded not to fear. Possibly one of the most powerful verses in the Bible explains why:
James 5:17
"Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."
The phrase "subject to like passions" means suffering the like with another. Elijah was no super human. He loved, feared, got angry, felt sadness and depression in the exact same way that every single other human being through the history of the universe has. Yet behold what God did through Elijah.
James uses the illustration of Elijah directly after this phrase, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
When we are righteous through Christ and pray fervently and effectually, God can use us like He used Elijah. Do I truly believe that today?