GOT ANY NEEDS?
Meet a woman who marries and thinks she has the world by the tail. Imagine the hopes and dreams she and her husband cherish. A baby boy soon adds to their joy. Then disaster strikes.
- Her husband dies
- She is a widow
- She is alone without an extended family support system
- She has no bank account or insurance policy
- She has no job
With everything already going against her, an extended drought rocks the economy. Everything turns brown and dies. She scrapes and claws out a living, but finally she and her son come down to the last of the flour and oil. One more meal and they will starve to death. Interestingly, a stranger comes along. It happens to be Elijah, the prophet of God. Elijah had been public enemy number one of King Ahab. He was living as a fugitive, hiding out by a ravine and being fed by ravens (1 Kings 17:4). What a life! Every day he depended on the ravens to come. Every day he awaited God’s supply. Every day divine supply followed divine placement. Just when Elijah must have thought he had God all figured out, the brook dried up and the ravens stopped bringing food. Elijah was driven back to his Source.
It is easy to seek God’s hand and not His face, easy to trust a method and forget God is the Source. God decides to resupply Elijah through a widow living in town (1 Kings 17:9). Elijah may be thinking, “Yes! I hope she has a big house, a pool, and a better setup than living in a ditch!” Instead, he finds a poor single mom from Zarephath in the heart of Baal country, and you recall Baal worshippers were not fond of Elijah. She refers to “your” God and not “our” God (1 Kings 17:12).
What comes next is amazing. Elijah says, in essence, “I know I am a stranger and thought of as your enemy but give me your last meal. If you do, you will meet the God who will resupply your cooking products miraculously until the famine is over” (1 Kings 17:13-14).
What a crazy request, yet she does it. She discovers not mountains of flour and barrels of oil, but enough—enough for the day, and then the next day and the next (1 Kings 17:15-16). God is the God of the resupply. He is the God of manna. He is the God who gives daily bread. In fact, as her story unfolds, she ends up with her son in an above-average-size house and Elijah’s God as her God. She found it was impossible to out-give God. She had met the God of the resupply.
It is hard to explain the math sometimes, but something happens with God. Take a risk. Step out in faith, just like the widow who made the loaf for Elijah and saw God resupply. Join the adventure! Look up, for God will write new stories. Where God leads, God supplies. It is a promise. Remember, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) and “Yet, I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread” (Psalm 37:25b).
Dr. Michael Sprague is the Louisiana State Chaplain with the Capitol Commission and President of Grace Adventures. Michael lives with his wonderful wife Donna and resides in Mandeville, LA. His motto is “Bet the Farm on God.” You can find more information about Michael here.
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