Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Suzan Hurlbut.
The devotion this week is based on 1 kings 17:1-16.
Elijah is out hiding in the Wadi Cherith while waiting for God to guide and direct him. He then encounters a foreign widow who was one of the most disenfranchised people in Israel. Elijah understands her plight, she only has a little flour and oil left and she is ready to die with her son. Elijah understands because he is hungry and thirsty too. Perhaps this pain of hunger, fear and thirst prepared him for this prophetic encounter.
This resonates with me and I don’t like it.
Why do I need to go through pain and fear and loss in order to turn over to God and trust that I am not alone in this? I know this is not the only way we experience God’s presence and help but it happens so often that when we go through things like losing a beloved person in our lives, or losing a job, money struggles, dealing with addictions and loneliness, that is when we may reach out to God or somebody to help us feel whole. When my son Scott goes through awful chronic pain with no clear answers in sight, that is when I run to God. And sooner or later, I have hope again.
What I am trying to remember is what Gerald May has talked about and that is that all the places I run to calm my fear, to help me cope, to make me feel loved like my addictions to my phone, to people pleasing, to self improvement, are poor substitutes for the real desires of my heart that only God can fill in the end. To truly trust that is God is only love, only love and that God longs to fulfill the deepest desires of my heart is true but hard to hang onto.
Another thought on these verses is about the widow. My God she only had enough flour and water to keep her son alive for one more time and yet she believed and didn’t hoard. Do we trust there is enough? One of my favorite verses is from Psalm 65 “The river of God is full of water.”
Do I live like there is a limited amount of love to go around? Do I have a world view of scarcity, win/lose competition? It seems like the world view of the Gospel is abundance. Can I/we learn to depend on the God who is a infinite source?
Prayer: Lord, Help us to know there is enough, even for us. Amen