A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you on how to manage your assets in the days ahead. Heeding this is inculcating the sense of responsibility needed to get through the coming times. As Paul admonished, the days of ignorance are past. Acts 17:30 – times of repentance concerning the material giftings of God in your hands are here! My text comes from 1 Kings 17:6-7 (NIV). To quote Bob Gass, who also was quoting another author, “sometimes when there is not enough to make ends meet, people tell us to budget and we chuckle. We look at the situation and say no way”.
I know that many of us are in such situations and my earnest expectation is that what I am sharing today will take you out of that state!
Going to our text – 1 Kings 17:6-7 (NIV) the dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives, but you can make this the history of your yesterday and the prophecy of your tomorrow. This scripture teaches us the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver! The gift lasts for a season, but the Giver is eternal! Too many of us do not focus on the eternity and eternal capacity of the Giver to deal with the drying brook.
May I ask, Who is your giver, your supplier? God, church or a man? Genuinely answer that question before I continue. I wholeheartedly give glory to God and express profound gratitude to all our brethren who out of their surpluses or sacrifices have shared with the needy amongst us in obedience to 1 John 3:17 during this time. This however does not make them God, El-shaddai, in our time of need neither should you make them El-shaddai. The first place of your call in the time of need is neither the church nor man but God.
Please don’t misunderstand me here. That time of need is the time to trust God because your possibilities in such an hour are not limited by your past or present circumstances. If there isn’t enough to pay legitimate expenses, do your best and then let go. This is where the sense of responsibility I spoke to earlier comes in. Trust God to supply your need, then look beyond your wallet. Someone is thinking that there is no wallet. I say think and look again. This is where striving for financial responsibility in thought and action comes in! Look at Elijah again in his straits and ask for wisdom, listening always for God’s leadings.
For some of us, God will bring us to situations where you have to let go of your fears and your need to be in control of your situations. In running to man, without God’s specific leading, you may be causing him to sin, his intervention being to stop God’s working in your life! We all know money is a necessary part of living, so does God who at a point said so in Isaiah 55:1.
B. Meyer said: “the education of our faith is incomplete till we learn that God’s providence works through loss…… And that there is a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things;” and brethren I have been there and sometimes still there but the God of miracles always comes through. There however must be a change of attitude and approach.
If the Lord had led Elijah directly to the widow at Zarepath, he would have missed something that helped make him a better man – living by faith. Whenever our earthly resources dry up, it is so we may learn that our hope and health are in God, not in government, man nor church. As I close this let’s read together Psalm 146:5 (NLT).
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5
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