Remember the old Hee Haw song? Gloom despair and agony on me, deep dark depression excessive misery, if it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me.
This widow could have written that song! Now in reality no one is denying that this poor woman has it bad.
She only has a handful of meal, a little oil, a couple of sticks and no prospects for more. She is identifying herself as a, VICTIM!”
She didn’t ask for this drought. She didn’t do something to stop the rain from coming down. She was suffering because of something she had absolutely no control over. She is giving up.
“I can’t” is the mantra of victims the world over! Victims are those who do not walk in a revelation of the love of Christ.
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
What is most interesting in our story is what precipitated this widows response to Elijah.
When Elijah saw this woman he asked her to give him a drink and bring him a morsel of bread to eat. He did not pay attention to her poverty, he likely expected she was walking with God.
Basically this poor widow with little was asked to give and to serve.
Listen very carefully to me. Many people think only the talented, the gifted, and the wealthy should be the ones to give of themselves and their resources. Here is a very clear lesson that even the poorest person, with very little, has something to give.
Give what, you might ask? Well let me finish my story.
After the widow tried to get out of feeding the Elijah by going into her statement regarding her condition. Elijah told the woman “do not fear, go and do as you said but make a small cake for me first, and afterward make some for yourself and your son.”
Giving of ourselves and what we have is not what we do after we have taken all that we need first.
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
