A Widow's Faith

             Faith is something that we talk about a lot but I’m not sure that we understand it completely.  I am sure that we don’t know how strong our faith is until it’s tested.  It’s in those difficult times when difficulties and problems stare us in the face that we must decide whether we will trust that God is still in control, regardless of the outcome, or will we go our own way and abandon Him.  I’ve been there, and I know that those are not easy decisions, but I also know that the more that you trust Him, the greater your faith grows.  

            Recently, my women’s Bible Study looked at the life of a Gentile woman who probably had heard of the God of the Jews but didn’t know Him personally.  Her land was in the midst of a drought brought on by Israel’s unfaithfulness and she was preparing to bake her last bit of flour to feed herself and her son before dying of starvation.  That’s what I would call a desperate situation!

            Yet, when Elijah, God’s prophet, showed up and asked her to bake him a cake first, she did exactly as he asked.  Why?  Because the God that she barely knew had commanded her to care for this prophet, and the prophet was promising a future that she didn’t know if he could provide.  We don’t know how God “commanded” her or what she knew about Elijah before that day.  We do know that despite her desperate situation, she obeyed.  She decided to put her faith in the God who had commanded her and His servant whom she had never met before, and so, she did exactly as Elijah asked. Miraculously her jar of flour and the jug of oil did not run dry until God brought rain to the land. 

            That’s faith!  She followed God’s command and probably found hope in Elijah’s words “Don’t be afraid”.  As we are faced with similar desperate situations, unlike this Widow, we know the Sovereign God.  We know of His faithfulness and His love for His children.  We also know of His words throughout Scripture.  His words to Abraham “Do not be afraid for I am with you” (Gen. 26: 24 NIV84) and to Joshua “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NIV84) still resound with us today.  There’s no guarantee that our desperate situation will be resolved as the Widow’s was, but we can be assured that God will be with us throughout the problem.  He will never abandon us; He will go with us through the fire.  He only calls us to have faith that He is the Sovereign God and that He, who sent His Son to die for us, will not abandon us now.  Have faith!

I Kings 17: 7 - 16

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