Tuesday, May 7
Read 1 Kings 17
Think About It:
- What is the source of your strength in times of persecution or difficulty? What evidence is there that the LORD God is the supreme reality of your life?
- After Elijah’s bold proclamation of the drought, God tells Elijah to go and hide by the brook Cherith. God was guiding Elijah step by step through faith. Elijah had to learn to trust that God would supply his needs, just as the Israelites in the desert had to trust God for water and for their daily manna. Elijah had to trust in God’s ability to provide for him in a supernatural way.
If God were to call you into a place of waiting alone with Him, whether through sickness, death of a loved one, loss of a relationship, loss of a job, etc., what do you think your reaction would be? Would you see this as a punishment from God, or as an opportunity to deepen your dependence on and your relationship with God?
- Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you” 1 Kings 17:8-9. God directs Elijah to draw on his strengthened faith and dependence on Him to go to a gentile city and to rely on a gentile widow to provide for him. Elijah obeys and goes to Zarephath. There instead of finding a rich widow who could easily provide for his needs, he finds a desperately poor widow about to prepare her last meal and wait to die. Not only is Elijah’s faith tested again, but God is using Elijah to test the widow’s faith in an obedience to a God who is not her own. Ultimately, God will miraculously provide the means of provision andbring her son back to life. But the widow is called to serve and obey God before she sees the supernatural power of God.
How can God use your faith in Him and your obedience to Him to bring faith to someone else?
Family Time:
- What did Elijah tell would not happen for the next three years? (verse 1)
- How was Elijah fed during this time? (verse 6)
- What miracle did the LORD perform for the widow in Zarephath? (verse 20-22)
