“UNWAVERING FAITH”
1 KINGS 17:8-16
Faith is part of everyday living. When you are ill, you go to a doctor whose name you cannot pronounce. He gives you a prescription you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen. He gives you medication you do not understand. Yet, you take it. Now, that is living by faith!
How do we take faith to a different level? Moving faith from simply trusting the unknown to faith as trusting God to provide? Faith is not believing something will happen; faith is believing what God said will happen.
This story in 1 Kings 17 illustrates an unwavering faith. God tells a widow to give her last meal to a stranger. If she does, then she will not go hungry. Believing what God said would happen, she took what was left in her cupboard and gave it away. This is the level of faith which ought to characterize our lives. Follow God’s commands, even when they do not seem to make sense.
SCRIPTURE At this point, God had declared it would not rain on the earth for 3½ years because of the sin of the King. The resulting drought and famine caused this widow to be in great need. Ever since the death of her husband, she was responsible for providing for herself and her child. I wonder how many nights she went to bed crying out in her heart, “Where will I find the food for us to survive another day? What will happen to us tomorrow?”
Somehow, she had managed to scrape together enough cooking oil and flour to bake one last cake. One more cake, one more fire, one more meal, then nothing would be left. There was not an HEB, or farmer’s market, or neighbor from which to borrow; nothing. They could not last long in their weakened condition.
As Elijah comes walking into town, he sees this widow and says, I am thirsty go get me some water. She does not have a problem finding Elijah a little water, but then he says to her to first make for him a cake of bread.
She explains she was making a cake for herself and her son, then they would die. She had already made the funeral arrangements, she had already told the funeral home director to bury her beside her deceased husband, and lay her boy between them. She had already made out her will. In other words, she had determined in her mind it was over. She and her son were going to die. Elijah, though, knew God was going to provide.
Elijah asked her to first make a small cake for him from the little flour and oil she had remaining. If she did, God promised she would not lack having enough flour and oil throughout the famine. She would not go hungry if she first gave to God.
God wants your first fruits, not your scraps and leftovers. Many people today would have told Elijah “no”. Their attitude is, “It’s mine, mine, mine; I will not give it away.” Most people, even Christians, are more concerned with getting the things they want than they are about giving to God what God says they need to give to His work.
Some Christians only give God their leftover time, their spare change, and the last few minutes of a long day, if they give Him anything at all. We give God the leftovers of our life then wonder why our lives are lacking in so many ways. God deserves your first fruits.
Notice what happened when this woman put God first. The Bible says this woman had two sticks, not two logs. I have burned sticks, they do not last long, or stay hot long either. Elijah said, Make me a cake first, and make you and your son the next cake.
She goes in the house, puts her two sticks in the oven, goes to the jar of flour and the jug of oil, and mixes everything together. She slides the cake in the oven, and goes back 15 minutes later expecting to find nothing but ashes from the sticks and a cold oven; but, the sticks are still burning. She takes the cake of bread to Elijah and goes to make one for herself and her son.
While she is away, the angel refills the jar of flour and the jug of oil. Walking over to the jar, expecting to find nothing, she looks in and sees more flour. “I thought I scraped the bottom of the jar; I thought I poured out all the oil; but look, there is more than enough for another cake.” In the oven, the two sticks are still burning, and the oven is still hot.
Because she was willing to obey God and give the first fruits of her labor to Him, she, Elijah, and her son were able to survive the long drought and famine. God provided all they needed. The oil would refill and the grain would multiply after every meal. God’s power to provide for our need is not limited by what we see (I do not have enough), only by what we believe, by our obedience, and the faith we have in God and His provision.
It did not matter how many times she went to the jar or the jug. She had more than enough meal for bread, and more than enough oil for cooking. If little Jr. wanted a pancake between breakfast and lunch, there was more than enough meal, and more than enough oil. If little Jr. wanted a midnight snack, when she went to the jar and to the jug it was there. While her neighbors were struggling and getting thinner, she and Jr. were gaining weight. While her friends were crying in the night, she and Jr. slept soundly. While others were having funerals because of dying from hunger, she and Jr. were living, all because she obeyed the voice of God.
Your flour and oil will accomplish little, but God can do wonders when you leave them in His care. This widow planned to use them to cook a last meal for her family and die. But when she used them to feed God’s prophet, and exercised her faith in the Lord, God did not just supply one meal, He supplied thousands of meals. Three people eating three meals per day for three years is over 9,000 meals! God always provides abundantly!
A little flour and oil are not much, but in the hand of God, they are plenty. A sling and a few stones in the hands of David are not much, but when committed to God they killed the giant, Goliath. All Moses had was a rod, but when given in the hands of God, it parted a sea. When the little boy gave his five loaves and two fish to Jesus, multitudes were fed. All the Lord is looking for from you is the faith to place your two sticks, a little flour and a little oil in His hands. When we do, everything changes.
What little you have is all God needs. Jesus said if your faith is the size of a mustard seed, the impossible can happen; mountains will move. Faith is not believing something will happen; faith is believing what God said will happen.
Do not hold on to what you have, put it in God’s hand. He said if you place your life, your soul, in His care, He will forgive your sin, remove your guilt, and connect you with the presence of God from now through eternity.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
A little girl asked her Pastor, "Will Jesus ever leave me if I trust in Him?" He said, "Why do you ask me that?" She began to cry and said, "My Daddy left me and my Mommy and we are all alone now. Is Jesus just like my Daddy?" No, Jesus is not like her Daddy. He will never leave those who trust Him. He will never leave you or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
You can trust God with what little you have if you will place it in His hands.
