🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” —1 Kings 17:8
But Elijah said to her, “ Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for you and your son. For this us what the Lord, the God of Israel says: There will always be flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!” —1 Kings 17:13-14
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
At the ocean, thousands of granules of sand settle along the shore. When you pick up a handful in your fist and hold it, the sand will stay within your palm. But this does you little good because the sand is trapped inside your palm. Only when you loosen your grip can your fingers move to create anything.
People, places, and pursuits that matter to us matter to God. If these entities hinder our heart for God, He will call us to let them go. When we hold on so tightly to something of value to us, God can’t mold and make something greater out of it. Like our time at the ocean, only after we release the sand can the granules be formed into more than its pieces.
The widow is collecting sticks to cook a last meal of bread for herself and her son. This is all she has to hold on to. Is she holding onto it tightly? By her response to Elijah, yes. We’ve all been there. We’ve held on to things so tightly, it had to be pried out of our hands.
Desperate and destitute. Earnest in spirit, empty of hope. She’s come to the end of herself and exhausted all resources humanly available. What does God do for the widow? He sends his man of God, Elijah, with this message: Oh come to the altar. Bring everything you have, even the very little left, and bring all that you don’t have. Because I am going to replenish what you do have, replace what you don’t have, and reunite the two.
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God asks for the sacrifice to make the sanctification possible.
But Elijah said to her, “ Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for you and your son.
Elijah tells the widow to go through with her original plans, but first take this route and make bread for him. Set aside the obvious (survival food for her family) for the outrageous (sacrificial food to God via a meal to Elijah first.)
Divine detours are directed in our lives to drive us deeper into the will of God and deviate our flesh to bend to faith. Bury your flesh so your faith can rise. God understands the conflicting nature of the widow’s devotion and despair. Her eternal need for supernatural bread is greater than her earthly need for earthly bread made of flour and oil. When we come to the altar, the self has to be sacrificed first. God is calling the widow to sacrifice her scarcity so her soul can secure what her flesh cannot. A demise to self. A dying to all that we are not, and all we want to be, for all that He is, and all that He is able to in our lives. Sacrifice precedes sanctification.
Surrender the soul.
Slay the self.
Sacrifice your scarcity.
See faith soar.
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God asks for the impossible to make it possible.
When our hands cling tightly to our wants, our hearts cannot climb higher to worship. In the greatest trial of her life, the widow’s faith is tested beyond her understanding. She has to give up her only means of survival by faith. But her weakness becomes the path God takes her through to worship Him at the altar. Weep not, beloved, when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The Shepherd comes to filter light to the dark places and life to the desolate spaces.
Lean all in and love all out when you hear Him call. Release your grasp. Relax your clasp. Ready God room to move. Relinquish your hold so God can mold. Let the sand granules fall. Let the Savior make the miraculous in your life. When God asks the impossible, He is making a way possible.
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©️2019 Jordan Su