Drought
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[June 04, 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
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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.
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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]
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