Wednesday September 21, 2022

Scripture Passage: 1 Kings 17: ¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

Life Lesson: It is never enough for us to agree in principle with the word of the Lord, we must act upon it in obedience. 

– The widow went away and did as Elijah had told her.  Now it would be easy for us to gloss over this part of the story and focus only on the miraculous provision that happened subsequent to her obedience, but we must not. 

– It is here at the point of acting on what the word of God has told us that many of us fail. If for example the message we receive from God’s word is in conflict with what we want or the direction we want to go, many will find a way to rationalize why they must “go with their gut” rather than heed the word of God.

– It is precisely here, at the point where we decide if we will follow God’s word or go our own way, that is so very crucial to our spiritual development and our spiritual health.  In John 6:66 many turned away from the following Jesus because of His hard teaching and when Jesus turned and asked His disciples if they would turn away as well, Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

– There is always a choice that is intrinsic to our walk of faith.  We may choose to trust the word of the Lord above all else or we may choose to go a different way; to quite literally turn away from following the Lord.  Here’s the rub, those who know Him also know that to go any other way is to follow a path that leads to destruction, but they also know that to follow Him is to walk in the newness of life that only Christ can make possible.

– The widow chose to walk toward life when she turned her heart away from the despair that threatened her as well as her son, and instead to act on the word of God that had been revealed to her.  This she did by faith.  She acted on faith even though everything within her and the situation all around her screamed at her to go a different way.

– But that is just it, isn’t it?  This world, our sinful nature, and the father of lies will scream for us to turn away from the authoritative word of the Lord!  But by faith we choose to listen to God’s word and to act upon what it tells us.  And those who trust the word of the Lord and act on it, know in their heart that His words are the words of eternal life!