January 28 I Tuesday

Exodus 19-20

Matthew 18:21-35

“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.”  
—Luke 4:25-26

 

There was a time in the Old Testament when people were in rebellion and Elijah prayed that there would be no rain. For three and a half years, there was no rain, which means there were no crops and no harvest. With no rain on the land, even the little river that Elijah was resting by to drink water had dried up. Then the Word of the Lord came to him, “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food” (1 Kings 17:9).

As Elijah came close to the town he saw a widow gathering sticks and he asked her for some water. While she was headed to bring him some water, he added, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” But the widow responded, “As surely as the LORD your God lives…I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive 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.” Then Elijah tells her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 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 sends rain on the land’”
(1 Kings 17:10-14). The widow did as Elijah instructed and there was enough food not only for Elijah but also for her and her family.

Elijah’s good news to the widow brought a limitless supply of food while the famine lasted but it required her to give up all she had in order to experience that miracle. Has God ever asked us to do the same? We might be saying, “God, show me and I will believe,” but He’s telling us, “Believe then you will experience.”

When the widow experienced the blessing by obeying the prophet’s instruction, she said,
“Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth” (1 Kings 17:24).
May we exercise faith and give up what little we have to experience His blessing, acknowledging that we do not have the resources to feed ourselves as Jesus said in the New Testament,
“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).

 

Prayer: Lord God, how powerful You are! Increase my faith to believe and trust You with all that I have, knowing that my resources come from Your generous blessings. Thank You, Lord.


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