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LIVE GENEROUSLY
'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want' Psalm 23:1
Elijah reached the edge of town, and dropped his bags to the ground, worse for wear from his long trip. He cleared the sand from his eyes and watched an old woman go about her business. She was struggling to hoist a bucket of water up from a well. Elijah's voice cracked as he asked the woman for a drink. 'Oh, and bread,' he added, 'please bring me a piece of bread'. 'As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread. I have a handful of flour. My son and I are preparing our last meal' the woman replied.
Feeling bold, Elijah prompted the woman to give the last of all she had, promising that the Lord would see she had enough food to survive the entire famine. The woman was no pushover. She knew bread didn't grow on trees. She sensed a down-and-out chancing his luck. 'No doubt he'll sell the bread to buy a bottle of meths at the off-licence', she reasoned as she double-bolted her door. The police arrived shortly to arrest the "hobo" for harassing the elderly. A fortnight later, both the man and woman were dead from malnutrition.
The story of Elijah and the widow could have turned out so differently if God was not constantly trustable. Lesson: live generously. Hard times are the wrong time to stop giving to God. It's not a hard-and-fast formulaic rule, but often God's so pleased when we give, that He honours it with His own generosity.
What now? Read how the real story of Elijah and the widow pans out in 1 Kings 17:10-24.
written by Bob Gass
'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want' Psalm 23:1
Elijah reached the edge of town, and dropped his bags to the ground, worse for wear from his long trip. He cleared the sand from his eyes and watched an old woman go about her business. She was struggling to hoist a bucket of water up from a well. Elijah's voice cracked as he asked the woman for a drink. 'Oh, and bread,' he added, 'please bring me a piece of bread'. 'As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread. I have a handful of flour. My son and I are preparing our last meal' the woman replied.
Feeling bold, Elijah prompted the woman to give the last of all she had, promising that the Lord would see she had enough food to survive the entire famine. The woman was no pushover. She knew bread didn't grow on trees. She sensed a down-and-out chancing his luck. 'No doubt he'll sell the bread to buy a bottle of meths at the off-licence', she reasoned as she double-bolted her door. The police arrived shortly to arrest the "hobo" for harassing the elderly. A fortnight later, both the man and woman were dead from malnutrition.
The story of Elijah and the widow could have turned out so differently if God was not constantly trustable. Lesson: live generously. Hard times are the wrong time to stop giving to God. It's not a hard-and-fast formulaic rule, but often God's so pleased when we give, that He honours it with His own generosity.
What now? Read how the real story of Elijah and the widow pans out in 1 Kings 17:10-24.
written by Bob Gass
