Unwavering Faith

“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.