Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 17:8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.”
1 Kings 17:8-9
Reflection
The promises of God are always enough. They are guarantees by which we can live. During a time of great famine in Israel, the prophet Elijah goes into hiding from Jezebel the Queen of Israel, who is seeking to find and kill him. This is because Elijah has announced this great famine that has been brought about by God. In order to protect Elijah, God instructs him to go to Sidon – enemy territory – where He will provide for Elijah through a widow who resides there. Elijah obeys God, and finds a poor widow. He declares to the widow that God will provide for her and her household throughout the entire drought if only she would first prepare food for him.
Through acting out of faith in God’s promises, both the Elijah and the widow are sustained. Elijah trusts God enough to go where God leads, and is provided for through the most unlikely of people: a desperately poor widow who is preparing her last bit of food to eat. Likewise, the widow is asked to sacrifice her very last bit of food for Elijah in order to receive an abundance of food from God, and by doing so witnesses a miracle of God’s amazing providence. In both cases, moving forward in faith in God’s promises leads to complete contentment that God provides. In that faith, a Faithful God uses two people with nothing to become blessings to each other. Through faith, Elijah and the widow become vessels by which God’s faithfulness is seen and known.
God always fulfills His promises. Just as we are called to go to God for all of our needs, we are more importantly called to go where He leads in all circumstances. For it is in when we have nothing but God’s promises to rely on that we are blessed to see most clearly that what He decrees is more than enough to sustain us. The key is that we do not ask God to take us where we want to go, but rather, take the steps He directs us to take to places where He wants us to be used by Him.
Prayer
Loving God, You are Faithful and True. You are always Good to fulfill Your Promises to Your people. Thank You for making me a recipient of Your Good Promise, especially through Your Son Jesus, who satisfies my soul. Thank You for Your Presence which guides me to places unknown where I can be a vessel of Your Glory. Help me to trust in Your Promises and in Your Word. Help me to daily be reminded of Who Your are, that my life would be led by You. In Jesus’ Name I pray, AMEN.
Thru the Bible in a year (credit: Biblestudytools.com): 1 Corinthians 4; 1 Kings 17; Amos 1
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