Hope beyond Circumstance . . .

I don't know about you, but my heart is full from the example of the Widow at Zarephath and her faith. Today I'd like to look a little closer at the faith this lady had. It was no ordinary faith!!

So let's open the treasure that is God's Word to I Kings 17 and read aloud (if possible) vs 7-16, and reacquaint yourself with all that was going on. And then let's land, if you will, in vs 11-14.

"11 As she was going to get it, he called, 'And bring me, please, a piece of bread. 12As 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 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 cake 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 gives rain on the land.'"

Elijah had told the widow to bring him a piece of bread (vs 11). She didn't have bread; she had all the components of bread, albeit in very small amounts, but not actual bread. So just a side note here; sometimes we have all the components of bread in our lives. We have some flour and oil, but if we don't use it; if we don't actually put it together in the proper increments it will never be bread; it will simply remain ingredients. So what ingredients do you have lying around in the cupboard of your heart that God is asking you to make bread out of? Do you have all the components, but not the bread? Bake the bread child, go on bake that bread :) !! And see how God will provide in your obedience!!

So let's land in vs 13 a minute. Elijah tells the widow to "Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me. . .and then make something for yourself and your son." She was to go home and do as she had said which would have been bake the bread and die, but first there was a stipulation, before she did that she was to make some for him.

So picture this:
Okay so you have only 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of oil and your going to make your meager bread and die!! And in walks this stranger. He tells you okay go home do what you said, but oh yeah first before you even make your own bread make me some. What? Okay now this would have sounded crazy to her. Make his bread first, but what about herself, what about her son, would there be enough? She could have asked lots of questions. Listen if this obedient widow had decided to do the "logical" thing; the thing that made the most sense, her and her son would have starved to death. Literally. Sometimes God asks us to do things that really make no sense to us. That may even make us look foolish ~~ listen to the world what this woman did would have looked foolish. She didn't know this man and she was giving him bread that she needed. But what she did know was her God. He had prepared her heart (vs 9), and she had listened and obeyed (vs 15).

Isaiah 55:8 says: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways."

The simple truth is that God's ways are just not our ways. Left up to us we will do things different than God and we'll mess things up; we will. But if we will listen to the heart of God speaking to us, we will bake bread for total strangers and God will be glorified. Or maybe we'll make bread for someone close to us; someone we think can make their own bread, but God asks us to go the extra mile for this person, when really we'd rather not. God is God and His ways are not ours; but His ways are always best!! Always!!

Please remember though, that it is very important that we can hear the voice of God clearly in our own lives, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish from God's voice and our desires. It is very important to spend time in His Word and in prayer and receive Godly counsel from people you know are close to God. God wants to speak to us and He wants us to be obedient to Him, but in order to do that we have to really know God. So I encourage you today to really get in His Word and let Him speak to you through it, and take time to talk to God. He wants to hear from you!!

What comes to mind is Matthew 25:34-40 where Jesus is talking about the sheep and the goats and the judgement that is coming, and He tells the righteous people that He was hungry and they gave Him something to eat, and a stranger and they took Him in etc., and the people wanted to know when they had done this. They didn't remember doing these things for Him, but Jesus tells them in vs 40 "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me."

This widow had very little, but a really bad circumstance and little hope of recovery from it, but God had another plan for her. He gave her hope in this dire circumstance. The hope and ability she had to be obedient came from God. She reached out and grabbed it. Logically speaking there was no hope that her circumstance would get any better, but in God she had hope beyond her circumstance and He provided.

Thank you for bearing with me for one more lesson on the faith of the widow in regard to provision. Next time we are going to go deeper into the faith of this widow as she is confronted with the biggest heartbreak and challenge of her life . . . so hold on for this one . . .