Empowered

Go And Do Likewise!

Life Lessons Devotional Series, Monday May 15, 2023

Scripture: 1 Kings 17: ⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” ¹² “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” ¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

Life Lesson: When your natural resources dry up that is the optimal time to trust in the Lord for His miraculous provision in your life!

– God had provided for Elijah during the beginning of the drought, leading him to a fresh flowing river and causing ravens to bring him meat both day and night.  However, the time came when the provisions God had given to His servant dried up. 

– Let me posit to you a question, when the provisions God has given to you dry up or are no longer available to you, how do you respond?  Is it now time to grumble and complain?  To rail against God for not meeting your needs in accordance with His glorious riches?  Or is it maybe time for God to redirect you to the new thing God has for you? 

– Elijah shows us how the person of faith responds in such situations, by waiting upon the Lord, hearing from God, trusting in God’s directing, and moving in the direction God was leading him.  Bear in mind, Elijah did not lose faith due to the disappearance of the physical manifestation of God’s provision for him. 

– God’s new directive must have seemed very strange to Elijah.  Why would God send him to a widow who without question must have been struggling just to survive?  You can’t get something from someone who has nothing!  Or can you?  Remember Peter’s words to the beggar who looked to them for a financial handout?  “Silver and gold I do not have”, Peter said to him. However, what Peter did have to give was so very much more than what the man was expecting!  This redirect from God would transform his life even as it did the widow!      

– The widow’s natural resources were also drying up!  Yet God sent Elijah to her and God had directed the widow to give him what she had!  She had nothing extra to give!  This was her time to trust in the Lord for His miraculous provision in her life!  Go and do likewise!