Drought

[October 23, 2010]   -- "For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar f meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.'  She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.  The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according ot the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah." - 1 Kings 17: 14-16

So there was the ubiquitous Old Testament drought in the land and people were starving and dying.  Even the great prophet Elijah was suffering, so God told him to go find a particular woman and she would feed him.  When Elijah found her, a widow, she and her son were almost out of food when God made the promise I transcribed above.  Feed Elijah and you will not run out of meal or oil until the drought ends.  She did as he said and they all survived the great drought.  But so what? 

This passage is incredibly rich, so much so that it is almost impossible to condense into one of these short e-votionals. So I simply want to leave you with this.  If you place your hope in God, you will always have enough. You won't always have enough food, enough money, enough comfort even, but you will have enough to get through your drought.  You will have enough hope, enough help, enough Spirit-given power, to see you through.  There is a saying that is often passed on to those who are suffering, "God never gives us more than we can handle."  I hate this particular saying and think it is tragically flawed.  But I do believe a permutation of it, "there is nothing we cannot handle with God."  The drought faced by the widow and her household was fierce and deadly and God gave her enough to get through it.  God will give us enough to get through the great challenges and tragedies in our lives.  God walks all these days with us, and there is nothing we must face alone. And when we think our faith is almost gone, our patience eaten away, our hope evaporating with the last drops of water, God will be there to make sure we never reach bottom.  God is with us.

Prayer:  God, thank you for being with me.  I ask that you would help me to face the challenges that I face today.  Please let me feel your presence.  I pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.

[text from file received by Phillip Blackburn, First Presbyterian Church]