Today’s Devotion
Topic: Nonetheless, At Your Word! (Part 1)
Self Assessment
Background: The Bible gives us countless examples of people who had to change from an earlier view or stand just because the word of God instructed them differently; and although trusting the Word defies logic, the after results were always so divine to further distinguish God as the All Powerful and wise God, whose word is ever faithful and ever true.
Today we begin a series of some of these incredible examples from the bible; Starting now with Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Kindly read the passage below.
Text: 1 Kings 17: 7- 16
7 Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him (Elijah) : 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”
10 So 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?”
11 As 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 bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive 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 it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 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.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. Amen!
Questions:
1. How many of us would sincerely agree that sometimes the instructions of God to us through his word goes contrary to logic? Read vrs 7- 9 again to explain your point from Elijah’s example.
2. Obviously, after the journey, Elijah was both thirsty and hungry. No wonder we see him ask the widow for water and later a piece of bread in vrs 10- 11. But how do those same verses help us understand the kind of person the widow was?
3. Read vrs 12 again, In your opinion, was the widow being sincere with the man of God or trying to hoard her food since it was famine time? What was her reality? How does this verse help explain the fact that we always have our “reality” before the word of God comes to us, and that is what makes it difficult to receive God’s instructions wholeheartedly.
4. In verse 13. the prophet instructs the widow to do what would be difficult for many of us to do. In vs.14, He now declared the word of the Lord, the very bases upon which he instructed her to feed him first. Do you honestly think the word that comes as from God helps make things easier for anyone in the widows position? Explain v. Nonetheless, we see in verse 15 that the widow acted on the word anyway. What virtue can make a person do that?
6. God proved Himself more than faithful by honouring His word in verse 16. How do we reconcile verse 9 and verse 16?
7. What have you learnt from today’s Bible study?
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