1 Kings 17:1-2

 

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.

2Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah:

 

 

Elijah is often compared to John the Baptist when it comes to colorful biblical characters. He is mentioned more times in the New Testament than any other Old Testament character. In fact, James 5:17 describes him as a man just like us.

 

 

When Things Go Wrong, A Heart Check Is Needed:                                                                   vv. 3-6

Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.

5So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

 

1.         Look inward .                                                                                           v. 7

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

 

2.         Look upward .                                                                                         v. 8

Then the word of the Lord came to him:

 

Remember Three Things When the Brook Dries Up:

– God has a purpose.

– God is in control.

– God is sovereign.

 

 

In Seasons of Drought and Doubt, Give Until the Heavens Open:                                           vv. 9-16

Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food. 10So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?11As she was going to get it, he called, And bring me, please, a piece of bread.

12 As surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don’t have any breadÑonly a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat itand die.

13Elijah said to her, Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14For 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 gives rain on the land.

15She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of theLord spoken by Elijah.

 

1.         The cycle of faith .                                                                  Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

2.         The cycle of giving .                                                                       Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 

3.         The cycle of hope .                                                                    Psalm 42:11

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

 

 

He is the God of unending abundance!

                                                                   Earle Wilson