June 10 – An Hour of Need (1 Kings 17:7-16)

“The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day of the Lord gives rain on the land.”
(1 Kings 17:14)

IN WORD:
A drought had made food scarce in Israel. Elijah the prophet had been fed by ravens, but God had a new command: Go to a widow in Zarephath. She would supply the need. Elijah did, and though the woman was preparing to die of hunger, God miraculously provided enough for her, her son, and the prophet.
Have you ever wondered why God told the prophet to go to a woman who had nothing? She was no source of great wealth, no prominent benefactor. She was about to make her last meal so that she and her son could then die. But God’s providence comes in barren places, and the woman learned a valuable principle: Obey God first, even when He asks for your last meal. Then your supply is up to Him.
Can you imagine giving your last dollar to a ministry while your stomach gnaws at you for attention? This is exactly what God ordered. The deep principles of providence kick in only after we’ve demonstrated a greater desire to invest in obedience than to invest in ourselves. No one ever received a blessing of God by desperately hanging on to his last dime. The greatest inflow of providence comes when we determine that nothing will hinder our outflow. God is looking for those who will do what He says before fulfilling their own desperate plans — Dow of Zarephath gave Elijah what she thought might be her last meal.

IN DEED:
At what point do you have so little that you stop giving to God? That is the point where God will demonstrate the futility of your plans — not because He enjoys frustrating us, but because He has greater plans for His people than their self-preserving instincts will allow. The miraculous flow of His providence is. Only miraculous to us when it seems unlikely. Our hour of greatest need is His hour of greatest supply. A Phoenician widow survived a famine on that principle. So can you.

“You will never need more than God can supply.” -J.I. Packer-