a) God
is always seeking to meet your needs. Giving opens the door for Him.
1Kings17 GW
1 Elijah, who was from Tishbe but
had settled in Gilead, said to Ahab, "I solemnly swear, as the LORD God of
Israel whom I serve lives, there will be no dew or rain during the next few
years unless I say so." 2 Then the LORD spoke his word to Elijah: 3
"Leave here, turn east, and hide beside the Cherith River, which is east
of the Jordan River. 4 You can drink from the stream, and I've commanded ravens
to feed you there." 5 Elijah left and did what the word of the LORD [had
told him]. He went to live by the Cherith River, which is east of the Jordan
River. 6 Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening.
And he drank from the stream. 7 But after some time the stream dried up because
no rain had fallen in the land. 8 Then the LORD spoke his word to Elijah: 9
“Get up, go to Zarephath (which belongs to Sidon), and stay there. I've
commanded a widow there to feed you.”
Elijah
wasn’t desperate. He wasn’t starving, God had been supernaturally sustaining
him. He was living in divine abundance during a time when people were dying of
famine and starvation. This woman had enough food for only one day and then she
and her son would die.
However
God planned to take care of her and provide for her. So He spoke to her and
told her He was sending a prophet to her whom she should feed.
This
prophet was Elijah, a man who was already blessed, healthy & well taken
care of. This may seem unfair and unreasonable at first, for God to tell a
woman who is about to starve to death to feed a guy who is healthy and well
taken care of. However we must remember that God has provided for us giving as
a way of receiving.
Realize
that God could have told Elijah to take this woman & her son some food
rather than go to her to be fed with the little that she had left.
Today we
would look at this as pure exploitation. Imagine the headline on the news that
day, “Pastor takes widow’s last meal! Leaves her to starve to death!” and what
would the public be saying “how could a so called ‘man of God’ exploit such a
woman? Preachers are all the same, they always want our money”
However,
our ways are not God’s ways, our thoughts are not His thoughts, God had a plan
for this woman and her son, He didn’t send Elijah for Elijah’s sake only but
for her and her son’s sake. No doubt she had been praying to God to save them.
Elijah was God’s unusual answer to her prayers.
10 He got up and went to Zarephath.
As he came to the town's entrance, a widow was gathering wood. He called to
her, "Please bring me a drink of water." 11 As she was going to get
it, he called to her again, "Please bring me a piece of bread too."
12 She said, "I solemnly swear, as the LORD your God lives, I didn't bake
any bread. I have one handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I'm
gathering wood. I'm going to prepare something for myself and my son so that we
can eat it and then die." 13 Then Elijah told her, "Don't be afraid.
Go home, and do as you've said. But first make a small loaf and bring it to me.
Then prepare something for yourself and your son. 14 This is what the LORD God
of Israel says: Until the LORD sends rain on the land, the jar of flour will
never be empty and the jug will always contain oil." 15 She did what
Elijah had told her. So she, Elijah, and her family had food for a long time.
16 The jar of flour never became empty, and the jug always contained olive oil,
as the LORD had promised through Elijah.
When we
give, we not only minister to the one we give to but also to us who give.
Giving opens doors for us into God’s abundance. Elijah didn’t come to this
woman only for his benefit, God sent him so that her & her son would also
partake of this divine provision that Elijah was enjoying already, so that they
too would be sustained miraculously by God.
By obeying
God’s voice to feed Elijah, she and her son were supernaturally sustained the
same way as Elijah. Elijah didn’t need this woman to feed him, if she had
refused God would just speak to someone else!
But she
needed to give to him if her needs were to be supplied. If she had refused to
give, she would have starved to death with her son but Elijah would still be
sustained by God. When God sent Elijah to her, it was for her benefit, not his.
Our gifts are for our benefit, not just for the ministries/churches/ministers
that we give to. If you refuse to give, others will but you will have lost out
on an opportunity to trust God to provide for you and prosper you.
b) Giving
opens doors for us to be ministered to
17 Afterwards, the son of the woman
who owned the house got sick. He got so sick that finally no life was left in
him. 18 The woman asked Elijah, "What do you and I have in common, man of
God? Did you come here to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 He said
to her, "Give me your son." Elijah took him from her arms, carried
him to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20
Then he called to the LORD, "LORD my God, have you brought misery on the
widow I'm staying with by killing her son?" 21 Then Elijah stretched
himself over the boy three times and called to the LORD, "LORD my God,
please make this child's life return to him." 22 The LORD heard Elijah's request,
and the child's life returned to him. He was alive again. 23 Elijah took the
child, brought him down from the upstairs room of the house, and gave him to
his mother. He said, "Look! Your son is alive." 24 The woman said to
Elijah, "Now I'm convinced that you are a man of God and that the word of
the LORD from your mouth is true."
What if
when you needed prayer, counsel or any other ministry the minister or pastor
wasn’t available because he was out working a job to provide for his family? Or
what if when you were in an emergency and needed help, the pastor or minister
wasn’t available to help you because they went away to look for money to
provide for their family?
Many times
we do not realize the importance of our giving to us. When we give and meet the
material and financial needs of those who minister to us spiritually, we enable
them to continue ministering to us since they don’t have to go out and provide
for themselves financially and materially.
Thus they
are available and able to minister to us and pray for us and help us when we
need help, prayer and ministry.
This
woman’s obedience in meeting Elijah’s need not only supplied her physical need,
it also led to her son’s resurrection from the dead. Because she sustained
& ministered to Elijah’s physical need, when she needed ministry because of
the death of her son, he was around to raise him from the dead.
Her
situation was an emergency situation but this is not the case most of the time.
However our giving ensures that we will be able to receive ministry every week
when we go to church because there are people who will be there to minister to
us, to counsel us, to pray for us, to help us etc. These people are sustained
through our tithes and offerings. If we stopped giving, they would simply go
and find ways to meet their material needs hence making ministry to us less
likely.
You never
know what a gift given in obedience to God can achieve for you. God is a lot
wiser and knows a lot more than us in the flesh, we need to obey Him. This
widow learnt a valuable lesson in that season. Where has God told you to give?
Have you obeyed?
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