FAITH OF A DESPERATE SINGLE MOM
I came across this (www.christianitytoday.com) and I thought I share it with you as we begin this morning’s message -
“Faster than a speeding toddler, more powerful than a cocky teenager, able to leap roller blades and hockey sticks in a single bound! Look up on that ladder… is it dad changing a light bulb??? a workman painting the ceiling???
NO!!!! It’s AWESOME MOM sorting through the laundry pile that has accumulated over the weekend.
Strange alien to a lazy teen, she hustles through the house with power and authority far beyond that of mortal man. Yes its AWESOME MOM!… Who disguised as a *totally weird creature who never ever was a kid herself* fights a never ending battle for TRUTH… JUSTICE… and time alone in the bathroom!”
Mothers, they are truly awesome beings. So happy mothers day to all our mothers! Here’s another thing I found this past week… It’s a David Letterman Top Ten list type thing. In honor of this great day, “You know you’re a mom”
Top Ten List…
10. You know you’re a mom when you automatically double-knot everything you tie.
9. You know you’re a mom when you find yourself humming the Barney song as you do the dishes.
8. You know you’re a mom when you gently sway back and forth… back and forth—however… your children are at school!!!
7. You know you’re a mom when you can never go to the bathroom alone without someone screaming outside the door.
6. You know you’re a mom when you actually start to like the smell of strained carrots mixed with applesauce.
5. You know you’re a mom when you weep through the scene in Dumbo when his mom is taken away….not to mention what Bambi does to you.
4. You know you’re a mom when you actually start understanding the Klingon language.
3. You know you’re a mom when you get soooo into crafts you contemplate writing a book called: "101 Fun Crafts to do with Dryer Lint and Eggshells."
2. You know you’re a mom when you spend a half hour searching for your sunglasses only to have your teenager say… "Mom, why don’t you wear the ones you pushed up on your head?"
1. You know your a mom when you are out for a nice romantic meal with your husband, enjoying some real adult conversation, when suddenly you realize as you are talking you have reached over and carefully started to cut up his steak! (source: www.christianitytoday.com)
I suppose, beneath all the laughter, we can see that mothers go through a lot, don’t they? Here’s another story, in the Bible of a single mother (look at 1 Kings 17) who went through a lot…
7Eventually the brook dried up because of the drought. 8Then GOD spoke to him: 9"Get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I’ve instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, to feed you."
10So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he came to the entrance of the village he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood. He asked her, "Please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? I need a drink." 11As she went to get it, he called out, "And while you’re at it, would you bring me something to eat?"
12She said, "I swear, as surely as your GOD lives, I don’t have so much as a biscuit. I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle; you found me scratching together just enough firewood to make a last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we’ll die."
13Elijah said to her, "Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said. But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here. Then go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son. 14This is the word of the GOD of Israel: "The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before GOD sends rain on the land and ends this drought.’"
15And she went right off and did it, did just as Elijah asked. And it turned out as he said--daily food for her and her family. 16The jar of meal didn’t run out and the bottle of oil didn’t become empty: GOD’s promise fulfilled to the letter, exactly as Elijah had delivered it!
17Later on the woman’s son became sick. The sickness took a turn for the worse--and then he stopped breathing.
18The woman said to Elijah, "Why did you ever show up here in the first place--a holy man barging in, exposing my sins, and killing my son?"
19Elijah said, "Hand me your son."
He then took him from her bosom, carried him up to the loft where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20Then he prayed, "O GOD, my God, why have you brought this terrible thing on this widow who has opened her home to me? Why have you killed her son?"
21Three times he stretched himself out full-length on the boy, praying with all his might, "GOD, my God, put breath back into this boy’s body!" 22GOD listened to Elijah’s prayer and put breath back into his body--he was alive! 23Elijah picked the boy up, carried him downstairs from the loft, and gave him to his mother. "Here’s your son," said Elijah, "alive!"
24The woman said to Elijah, "I see it all now--you are a holy man. When you speak, GOD speaks--a true word!"
In this story we can see this mother went through a lot. She experienced a real roller-coaster of emotions didn’t she, famine in the land, almost dying of hunger, no husband to provide for her? A single mom with a son to feed? I know that’s tough for I have 3 sons to feed… It can be stressful! How do u think she feels?
Then she experienced the joyous providence of God when Elijah the prophet entered into the picture. She had food to eat. It was miraculous. Ah, joy! But suddenly her son took a turn for the worst. The boy couldn’t breathe, as if SARS had attacked him, he stopped breathing – he was dead. Her world just fell apart and v.18 speaks of her utter despair. Her hopes for the future is gone, she has no one left in her life – alone, afraid, with no backup plan, no life insurance, nothing! Perhaps she felt guilty of her sins – but most of all, it was just pure pain!
Don’t we react the same way, many times we ask Why? Even Elijah was confused (v.20) he probably was attached to the boy. After all he was a guest with them for many months. More than likely he stayed up nights with the boy, telling stories of God’s heroic deeds, horsing around with him. He lived with them, ate with them, spent time getting to know them. Then the boy died. What a shock! It seems to be purposeless, meaningless loss of a life! “O God my God, WHY…,”cried Elijah.
Yet, I submit to you, it is this type of faith that God’s looking for in the heart of a godless, faithless world we live in. This faith of a desperate single mom shines as a testament to all who claim they are spiritual, they are OK with God and yet do not truly bow before the Living God. Even in the NT, this single mom’s faith is mentioned as something that God Himself endorses. Let me read from Luke 4 (CEV), Jesus speaking to a crowd of worshippers in a Jewish church
25 Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, 26 but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon…
28 When the people in the meeting place heard Jesus say this, they became so angry 29 that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. 30 But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.
When Jesus spoke of this single mom’s faith, it came across as insult to the people Jesus spoke to. And he was speaking to folks who are like you and me, churchgoers. Look at Luke 4, u can see that this story occurred in the middle of a church service, on the Sabbath day, as he commented on what the prophet Isaiah said. Look, how angry they became, they manhandled him, they were angry enough to kill! All because he cited this Sidonian single mom’s faith as an example of faith! Result: explosion of anger! I think Jesus can never be a good enough pastor for this congregation. In terms of today, it’s like saying God is more interested in the faith of dirt bags than the faith of church-goers. Why do u think of all the widows in all of Israel, Elijah was sent to this particular widow, and of all places, Sidon?
Look at this Jesus says, “There were many widows in Israel, 26 but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon…” meaning there was not one in Israel who trusted in God except for this poor single mom. Her faith though not perfect, is what God desires very much!
It’s clear there little loyalty in Israel in days of that Sidonian woman , that it was godless, it was wavering between idol worship and worship of God. The evidence of Elijah being sent to a Sidonian widow, speaks for itself says Jesus. It shows God honouring her faith and not the faith of idol worshipping Israel. But what’s so bad about Sidon?
Consider this: in context of 1 Kings 17, it was the capital of Baal worship. This is the land where mass murdering idol worshipping, Queen Jezebel rules. This land reeks with evil, many good people met their deaths at her hands. And her deeds and husband, King Ahab’s deeds chief stunk to high heaven. Till this day, Jezebel’s name ranks up there with those of Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden. And Jesus is saying that this single mom from Sidon, her faith is something of a thing of beauty. Cough! The folks in church choked! There is surely nothing good from Sidon, that Jezebel cursed land!
Yet Jesus said, that’s the type of faith, that God looks for. Jesus was using this pagan single mom to drive home the point, it takes more than living in an Israelite home to become a child of God, it takes trust, faith, investment of your life, in God alone. Just like living in Vancouver, that does not mean you are an automatic Vancouver Canunk fan. There were some Minnesota Wild fans living here too, seating the bleachers of GM Place.
Oh, is it not because her faith shone brightly? Is that not Jesus’ opinion?! And boy, that got him into a whole lot of trouble. They did not like what they heard. Jesus thinks we stink, who does he think He is, us horse manure, no way… oh they were angry, they wanted to throw him off the nearest cliff.
Let’s compare this Sidonian single mom’s faith versus the faith of Israel’s Ahab:
1. a poor single mom, with nothing much to give versus the well-off King of Israel who has all the resources of the country at his disposal. And what did he do with it? He built shrines/temples of Baal in Samaria (16:32). He allowed Jericho to be rebuilt (16:34) as direct affront to the claim that God had given the land to Israel, it signified that the land belonged to the God of Israel (Joshua 6:26).
2. She listened to God’s prophet “And she went right off and did it, did just as Elijah asked” (v.15). Whereas Ahab “did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him” (16:30-32)). She is experiences deliverance and attributes it to God’s Word. Whereas Ahab experiences prosperity and has a wavering faith between Baal and the LORD (18:21).
3. She has no heritage, promises of God were not for her since she is not an Israelite. Whereas the promises of God through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were for Ahab, an Israelite and he thought nothing of it.
4. She calls him a holy man, a prophet, one who speaks truth (v.24). Whereas Ahab calls Elijah a troubler of Israel (18:17)
5. Her faith caused her to open her home to Elijah thus she is open to godly influence and counsel. Whereas Ahab allow his wife Jezebel’s evil influence closed his heart to God.
What can we learn about faith?
1. Lean on God totally! Not on your heritage, or second hand faith. Just as the widow did. Look at how she did it. She cried, she accepted the word of God, she obeyed, she wrestled with pain and her anguish over her dead son but brought it to God’s attention. She did not hide her disappointment, she was real.
2. Latch on to God’s character. God’s Word may sound strange, but trust it because it is always for the good. God’s will is always to work things out not matter how rough and tough the situation may be. His personal character – see Jesus on the cross, see how He provided for the widow though outside the “acceptable” community of faith, Impossible for us to understand sometimes why He does things, but his character of love, holiness, goodness, will always shine through in our moments of crisis.
3. Leave behind the idols. Ahab’s downfall is his wavering faith, but the hopes of the single mom was in Elijah’s God. Trust in God’s sustaining power as the woman did in the lean years of famine. It may not look fancy, it’s not T-bone steak or Dim sum. But God will supply, if we continue to worship at His feet.
4. Live in resurrection power. That God could raised the dead, what power can do that? In this story we get the first recorded instance of God raising the dead. We see this ultimately in Christ, don’t we? This is where our hope will eventually be rewarded, no more death!
5. Love the grace of our God! God reached out to this single mom. This is cause to celebrate! God’s will is for folks like u and me to come to Him. Furthermore, God could have wiped out Ahab and Jezebel, stamp out their Hilter-like evil. That God still want to reach out to Ahab, and struggle with him, shows tremendous love, restraint, and patience. That’s how awesome God is.
This single mom’s faith is a lesson for us all, is it not the truth? Today, come back to God. Be real and cry to God like that desperate single mom. Show your loyalty to Him as you cling to every word from God even though you don’t grasp it all at once. Eventually you will see that everything in life is no accident. It is purposeful to lead you back to God, to know His love. There is enough grace to cover all your bases. If you’re far, and say you don’t serve any measure of God’s blessing, forget that! While u still have breath, while u still struggle, there is always hope. You can resurrect your life today in the power of God!
