The Word To Live By: 9-3-25
Phil Waggoner
It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. 1 Kings 17:7
The Word to live by: This is interesting and goes against a lot of religious theology. What do you do when you become a victim of your own obedience? Elijah prayed for it not to rain for three years, and now the brook that God was using to give him water dried up. Sometimes you are led by what you lose. Listen! Don’t sit around and thank God for a dry stream; go find one that isn’t dry! God will move you to another miracle, but it will take effort on your part. “Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So, “he arose and went to Zarephath…” In the natural, there couldn’t have been a worse place to go or a worse person to provide for him. Zarephath was in the heart of Baal worship country. As he gets to town, there happens to be a widow gathering sticks, and he asks her to bring him some water. Now, I want you to notice the number of times the word “little” or a reference to it is mentioned here. 1 Kings 17:10-12, “He called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” There wasn’t enough to sustain two people, let alone three, but … then came verses 13-16, “Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.’” So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.” To me, this was incredible belief on the widow’s part or just an attitude of, “What have I got to lose?” Either way, she obeyed, and there was always enough flour and oil in the bowl and jar to eat another meal. We have the luxury of hindsight here, so let’s look. If Elijah hadn’t obeyed, the widow and her son would have died. Because she obeyed, Elijah got the opportunity to witness for God in Zarephath, which is at the foot of Mt Carmel, where the incident with the 450 prophets of Baal happened and turned practically the whole nation back to God (1 Kings 18:20-40). What the devil meant for evil, God meant for good. Don’t ever overlook the little things God asks you to do.
Read through the Bible in a year: John 10:1-21; 2 Chronicles 8; Psalms 73;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 3, Mark 5:1-22, 2 Corinthians 5
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160