Dear friends of mine, who had previously
enjoyed a prosperous lifestyle, savings, and a fine home, experienced
job loss and successive calamities of workplace injustice, ensuing legal
struggles, dwindling savings, loss of their house, care of an ailing
parent, and great emotional stress. The threat of homelessness was real.
During an extended famine, God sent the prophet Elijah into enemy
Gentile territory, to an impoverished widow at Zarephath. Weak from
hunger and exhaustion, she was gathering enough fuel to cook one last
meal for herself and her son. Unaware that he was a prophet, she was
willing to fetch the stranger some water.
"As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, 'Please bring me
a piece of bread in your hand.' But she said, 'As the Lord your God
lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little
oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in
and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.' Then Elijah
said to her, 'Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little
bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may
make one for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of
Israel, "The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of
oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the
earth."'" (1 Kings 17:11-14 NASB)
Elijah didn't request the bread from need, but to test her faith. She
was to put aside her fear and put her trust in God. Elijah knew that God
would provide, but wanted the widow to see it too -- the great promise
of the provision of God for all their needs as long as the drought
lasted.
God provided my friends with a small but affordable room with a good
Christian family, a reliable car, enough employment income to keep
going, and eventually legal settlements and bequests to start planning a
new future.
Are you tired, too? Would you obey the Lord and trust Him, even if it
meant that you do without? If you give God only the leftovers of your
life, perhaps as a result, your life is lacking in many ways. If you
give to God first, from that portion, your provision and faith will
grow. God's ability to meet our needs is limited only by our faith and
obedience to Him.
"'For I know the plans I have for You,' declares the Lord, 'plans for
welfare and not for calamity to give You a future and a hope.'"
(Jeremiah 29:11 NASB)
Prayer: May we, Lord, look to You daily for provision, trusting You for
Your unseen hand in our lives, and trusting that from that seed of
faith, our faith and provision will grow. Amen!
Shirley Moulton
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Reprinted from the PresbyCan Daily
Devotional with the author's permission
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
messages. HTML and plain text versions available.
The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.