This week I am speaking in chapel on a story in 1 King 17. There is a widow who says she cannot give Elijah food because she barely has enough as it is. She is making her last meal before she dies. Then Elijah says,
“For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
God in His sweetness provided in the last moment for the needs of this widow. Then the widow’s son pretty much dies and God uses Elijah to bring him back! Craziness! This God of Israel, this God of people that continually abandon Him, this God, my God loved a woman who was giving into the despair of death and whose life was just falling apart!
You know what, I think our lives are not shy of oil filling moments but maybe just maybe we don’t see them! Recently I got sick and God just didn’t leave me on the street but he brought a sweet lady to come up and rub my back and care for me. Who said these oil moments had to be life or death they can be the sweet simple acts of God that demonstrate his love to us.
To be completely honest, I was letting my oil get pretty doggone low. Trying to make my bread out of mostly flour but at the end of the day it was just a crunchy yucky tasting day… But when I stopped to ask God to fill me up, to provide the oil for the next day, He so faithful said, “Yes my child!” I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed my day more when I was being filled with God’s love to share.
Our life is an epic romance where our creator loves us not simply because he made us 5 foot 7 not that at all but because to Him we are precious treasures. Why? I have no idea but He breathed His very breath into me. When He did that He in no means stopped loving me, He simply has listened to all my heartbeats since. He loves the moments when my heart is beating so fast from running home to Him. Those moments where I am so out of breath and sweaty, where my heart is pounding because I just can’t get to my Father fast enough… And my Father hurts when it becomes hard for Him to hear my heart beat because I am walking away. Yet God’s love, no mater the sound of my heart chooses to love me everyday. He chooses to look at His creation apart from the sin apart from my abandoning nature…
He simply is just waiting and willing to fill up my jar with oil so that today’s bread will be fresh and warm and the aroma will quicken the hearts of others with anticipation and excitement of the goodness of this bread that only God can bring into completion. I am just in awe of God’s love and God’s faithfulness. He is constant and willing to provide for my needs! Talk about love!
