Friday September 16, 2022

Scripture Passage: 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.”

Life Lesson: The Lord can use the most unlikely means available to meet our needs.  In this way we learn that our provision has come by the Hand of God and not through natural means.

– God directed Elijah to go to the house of a widow where he would be supplied with food.  The widow was not well off, in fact she had come to the end of her resources so one might wonder why the Lord would send His servant there for provisions.

– I have learned through personal experience in ministry that God’s provisions can come through completely unexpected sources.  Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 1: ²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

– Here Paul highlights not the personal strengths of those being called by God as though their personal strengths were assets to God; rather Paul cites their personal weaknesses!  Why?  So that those who would choose to boast would make their boast only in the Lord! 

– I love to make my boast in what God has done!  When people boast about their personal accomplishments it does not have the power and authority of when we boast in the Lord!  Boasting in the Lord is not about me or us, it is about what God has done in me or through us!  When we boast in the Lord, we point to God’s power manifested through His miraculous provisions in our lives and that same power is available to those who hear our testimony!  Like the widow who had nothing left only to soon realize that the God of Elijah was more than able to supply all of her needs! It wasn’t about what she had or she could do, it became about what God would do in her when she chose to believe the word of the Lord!

– God sent Elijah with no resource other than his faith in God to a widow who was almost completely out of resources.  Let me tell you something, when your only resource is your faith in God, you have all that you really need!