Pastor Aaron Prelock preaches through 1 Kings 17 on the faith of the Widow.
Bloomington Bible Church Sermons
1 Kings 17 - A Widow’s Faith
King's Chapter 17, First King's Chapter 17. Thank you so much to everyone who helped move yesterday. An hour and a half, good grief. That was pretty amazing. (laughing) Thank you so much. It was such a help. Really appreciate it. It was good to get time, especially with the guys. Enjoy a bit of banter back and forth. You gotta give each other a bit of harassment when you're passing each other up and down the stairs. It's just part of it. But thank you guys so much. It is really good to be here. I was talking to Mila this morning. It's good to have a family again, to belong to a group of people, to be a part of a flock again. Are, can't any church members now? Cool, it's good to be part of a church again. (laughing) We've missed that. I know it's not been a long time since December. We've missed that. We were a part of a church that we really felt was our family. It was home. And it's good to be able to build that again. I know all of that relationship back and forth, it's not gonna feel completely, it's not gonna mesh perfectly right away. It will take time. I understand that. But it's good to be here. I appreciate so much your trust, particularly of your elders. 'Cause no number of you don't know us. You haven't got to see us in person. But I hope and believe we will repay that trust for you. And it is good to be here a part of this congregation. I'm also excited about Tomorrow Night. Thomas Watson, man, it's a fantastic book. So really excited. I had nothing to do with the choosing. So I just get to benefit from that, looking forward to participating in the discussion tomorrow night. If you're looking for a physical version of it, Banner of Truth has a hardcover. Banner of Truth do really pretty books. So if you're a book geek, I've just outed myself as a weirdo. If you're a book geek, Banner of Truth is where you go. Anything Puritan, they're a bit pricey. I think they have a paper back in a hardcover. The hardcover is a gorgeous book. All of Thomas Watson's stuff that you can get with them are fantastic. He's very simple for a Puritan. Not all Puritans are as easy to read. Watson is fairly easy to read. So I'm looking forward to being a part of that tomorrow night. The next few weeks, I don't know how exactly this is gonna go. Haven't talked with the elders yet. We've not even had a formal elders meeting. We've not had a staff meeting. So all of this is to be confirmed. But I just wanna give you a window into what I'm hoping at least for the rest of this year. The next few weeks, next four weeks, depending on the schedules, it's just going to be looking at four characters in scripture. Two men, two women, two in the Old Testament, two in the New Testament. Looking at portraits of faith. What does faith look like? As Esteban was praying, there are a lot of people in this congregation who are hurting, who are experiencing difficulty right now for whom life is not easy. Many here are trying to obey God, trying to love God, trying to follow God. And it feels like the harder you try to follow, the harder you try to obey, the worse life gets. What do you do? These four people are all outside of the nation of Israel. They're foreigners. They're Gentiles. They would have been excluded from the closest communion that the Israelites could have. And yet they are all commended in scripture as examples of faith. They are commended to us as examples of faith. They're all people for whom life has been very hard. They're all people who are living in very difficult situations. And my hope is looking at these four characters will give us something of a perspective on what faithfulness looks like for us today. I hope it will be encouraging. I know it will be convicting. I hope it will be comforting. And I hope it will point us to the Savior and show us God has not failed us. Jesus has not forgotten us just because life is difficult. And then as we get into the autumn, again, this is to be confirmed with the elders, but I hope to go through Titus up until Christmas and look at what is the local church? I think that can be really refreshing and really encouraging. It'll be things that I trust you've already heard. You already know. What is the church to be? How is the church to interact? What's important? What's a priority for a church? For the next four weeks or so, portraits of faith. Let's look together first Kings chapter 17. We're gonna focus on the middle section, but I wanna read the whole chapter for context. First Kings chapter 17. Now Elijah, the Tishbite of Tishby and Gilead, said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither do nor reign these years except by my word. And the word of the Lord came to him, depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook carrith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook carrith that is east of the Jordan, and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, arise, go to Zarifath, which belongs to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarifath, and when he came to the gate of the city, he hold, a widow was there, gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a jar and a little oil and a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do as you have said. But first, make me a little cake and bring it to me. And afterwards, make something for yourself and your son. For thus the Lord the God of Israel, for thus says the Lord the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, nor did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, what have you against me, O man, of God, you have come to bring me to my sin, to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son. And he said to her, give me your son. And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon this widow with whom I sojourned by killing her son? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord. O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, see, your son lives. And the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God. And the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. Let's pray. Amen. Father, you heard the word of your prophet Elijah. Hear our voices today, we pray. We confess our hearts are weak, our faith feels small and insufficient, but you are the God who provides. Father, would you provide faith for us? In the midst of our own chaos, in the midst of our own needs, in the midst of our own sin, will you give us faith that we might trust in you, that we might obey you, that we might be faithful men and women? Father, help us to live lives of faithfulness, not just to do faithful things, to be faithful from our hearts, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of whether you bring us blessings of pleasure or blessings of pain. And help us hear this morning from your word what you call us to, each in our own lives. We pray this all in the name of Jesus, your son. Amen. We want to draw three lessons from this passage. Three lessons that help us in the midst of our chaos. The first lesson, Godly people suffer two. Godly people suffer two. Elijah bursts on the scene at the beginning of this chapter. If you know anything about First Kings, this is not a good point for Israel. For all of God's people, there's two kingdoms, the north is called Israel, the south is called Judah. Both kingdoms are completely faithless. The southern kingdom occasionally is more faithful, but the northern kingdom is pretty awful. Ahab is uniquely evil. He kind of takes the cake in the reign of Bad Kings, which is saying something 'cause they've had quite a few Bad Kings. He takes the cake because he marries a woman who is completely committed to her idolatry. So he marries a woman outside of the nation of Israel, a woman from a pagan nation that is completely idolatrous and he brings her into Israel and she just steeps the land in her idolatry. Ahab is kind of a weak man. He doesn't do anything without his wife's permission. When he just follows along in this idolatry, even as he is responsible to lead God's people in this northern kingdom of Israel. And God sends Elijah to call God's people to repentance, but Elijah does so by declaring a famine. A famine. I don't know about you. I don't like being hungry. I like food. And there are times when I have thought I was so hungry I was going to die, especially when I was little. Parents had a farm. We worked very hard on the farm. I thought if I don't get food now, I will die. But even worse than being hungry is being thirsty. In the midst of a drought, there's no water. So Elijah is cared for by God, but in the midst of nowhere, he goes east of the Jordan River. He's kind of hidden in this ravine sort of thing so that Ahab can't get to him. He goes from a rural ravine by himself where he's brought food by ravens, which I'm sure this is not the case, but what do ravens eat? The meat that they eat is not usually, let's call it organic and fresh. God is providing for Elijah, but then God says, okay, go from here after the brook dries up. Go from here not to Israel, not to a godly Israelite, but out of Israel to the other side of the country, to Sidon, to Zarephath. So he goes from the southeast to the northwest to be cared for by not a member of the nobility, not a member of the priestly caste, but by a widow, and if the passage is any indication, a widow who's been widowed pretty recently. This is hard. This is hard. To add insult to injuries, Zarephath is probably close to the sea, which has got to be maddening when you are thirsty. Smell the salt air and see so much water. Can't drink it. Can't drink it. The land around you is dying of thirst. The animals are about to die as we find out in the next chapter. There's so much water. Can't drink it. But the person that this passage versus eight, well, through the end of the chapter focuses on, it's not really Elijah, it's not his faith. He's the prophet. He has problems in his faith as we read throughout the rest of first kings, but the central character, this story is really this widow. We don't know much about her. God tells Elijah, I've commanded a widow there to feed you. Doesn't necessarily mean that God has actually talked to this widow. May mean that God has simply ordained or determined that a widow will feed him. Because when Elijah goes to this widow, yes, she obeys, but she doesn't show any recognition or any acknowledgement. Oh, yes, I'm doing for you what God has told me to. By the end of the chapter, she clearly believes in the Lord and there's a hint when she calls, she refers to the Lord by his name, the Lord your God. The fact that she refers to the Lord as the Lord your God may also be a hint that she's not sure what's gonna happen. No. Again, brothers and sisters, Elijah is the prophet in the Old Testament. Even John the Baptist is compared to Elijah and Elijah is hiding. This woman exercises great faith, but she still has to live in the midst of a famine. And then in 17 to 24 of this chapter, she still loses her son. Yes, God raises him back up again. Yes, God provides for her in this famine, but this godly man and this by the end of the chapter, godly woman still experience profound suffering. It's tempting to think that if we're godly, if we respond well to sin and temptation, if we respond well to the Lord, that God will provide for us like he did for Israel in the 10 plagues. You know, the rest of the nation of Egypt is in complete darkness and Israel has light. It doesn't always work that way. Elijah and this widow still have to live through the years of famine. This widow is faithful. She obeys the word of the Lord, which as we'll see in a moment is very, very hard. And she still has to watch her son die. We don't understand how God works. Can we admit that? We don't always like how God works. And it's good for us to remember Godly people suffer too. Godliness doesn't get us out of pain. It doesn't mean we get to skip past the curse of futility from Genesis 3. It's tempting to think, well, I've repented, I've trusted in Christ. I've led how many different aspects of a life in sin. I've left these sinful pleasures. I could have been this, but instead I chose to follow Christ. Shouldn't life work out a little bit better for me than it is? It's not how it works. If it does praise God, it doesn't always work out that way. Elijah suffers. This widow suffers. The brothers and sisters, you and I have to learn that Christian happiness in suffering comes when God himself is enough. Not just when our prayers are answered. Not just when our needs are met. Not just when we're happy, not just when life feels good. I'm tempted to look to God as a genie, a Santa Claus. And think if I just, if I just do good faith hard enough, God will answer my requests. Okay. Hearing, was it Christ's prayer, talking about Egypt? I felt that this week. Tuesday, middle of the day, Tuesday, all the housing options that we had? To be honest, we're pretty disgusting. There was one that was okay, but we had some that came out crying. It was so bad. She showed a video of it to my dad the other day and my dad almost threw up. Most of the housing options weren't too great. And I will admit, it crossed my mind. God, have you brought us here just to leave us alone? And then I was like, oh, who does that sound like? God, did you bring us into the wilderness to let us die? Oh, come on. It's convicted by my own faithlessness. I just want to go back to Egypt. Okay, I didn't want to go back to Egypt, but I didn't feel like God, you said you'd provide, but you hadn't. And within 36 hours, housing was taken care of. 36 hours. Look, it is so much easier to exercise faith right now than it was Tuesday afternoon. I could admit that. It is so much easier to exercise faith and we can say, praise God, he has provided. And we say, God, I need this. But we have to see God. As enough. Whether or not our needs are met. Whether or not he's answered our requests, whether or not we have enough. If we have God, we have enough. If our sins are forgiven, we have enough. The rest is gravy. The brothers and sisters, this is a hard truth. This is a hard truth. But this is absolutely bedrock. If we are going to trust God as the one who can provide forgiveness for our sins, that means our greatest need has been met. God of his grace, of his kindness, condescends to forgive us our sins. That should be the biggest thing of all. That should be our greatest need. But how many times do we think, you know, forgiveness is nice, but this is what I need. This is what I need. God in giving us his son has provided for us. Abundantly, we have to trust that. And that truth carries us through the reality that godly people suffer too. That brings us to the next lesson, which I think, I think, may even be harder. First lesson, godly people suffer too. Second lesson, obedience comes before blessing. Obedience comes before blessing. Look back at verses eight and following. Here's the cast of characters. This widow who were told she has a child, first to a younger child. We don't know how old. There's a child. A child who sometime during these two to three years of famine. Fairly young child. She seems that the widow has been made a widow recently. She's just lost her husband. She lives in a pagan land that's notorious for its idolatry. Pagan lands, Israel itself wasn't always kind to widows. The lands around it were even less so. She's got only enough water or she's got an only enough flour and only enough oil for a snack before she dies. It's not even the dying man's last meal. This is not a meal. This is barely enough. She's on, she's at the end of life. The world around her is chaotic and completely falling apart. In the midst of a famine, and this prophet comes to her and says, "Bring me some water." I know many of us have heard this passage so many times, but do we recognize how incredibly presumptuous this is? How colossally tone deaf this is? We are in the middle of a freaking famine. There's no rain. There's no water. Go get some water for yourself if you can find it. The beginning of chapter 18, we read that the animals are dying because of a lack of water. And this prophet says to this woman who's had such chaos in her life, "Go get me a drink, I'm thirsty." Dude, we're all thirsty. Did you notice there's been no rain? Maybe she doesn't know it, but it's kind of his fault too. He's the one who said the heavens are not going to rain for a while. And he goes up to this woman and says, "I want a drink." There's not even pleasantries. So we have to understand the context. He's not being rude to her, but he's not exactly softening the blow. She goes and gets him a drink. No questions, no arguments, no complaints. She goes and gets him a drink. And as she was going to bring it, he calls out to her, "I hate it when at home, Kate asks me to do something, "and I walk out of the room and then she starts talking to me again. "I'm literally beyond the range of hearing. "Why didn't you talk to me when I was right with you? "Why did you make me stop and come back? "I have problems." But that's what Elijah does to this woman. She marches off to get him water, kindly. Oh, by the way, bring me a morsel of bread. And she just stops. Can you see it? This woman looks tired, exhausted by hunger, by famine, by grief, by the weight of providing or having to care for a son whom she cannot provide for. And this, this individual, first wanted a glass of water and now wants some food when there's neither. She stops. She probably doesn't even turn around. It says, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked. "Only a handful of flour and a jar and a little oil and a jug. "And now I am gathering a couple sticks that I may go in and prepare it "for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. "They're about to die and the prophet says to them, 'Can I have some food?'" Look, this woman has every reason in the world to flip God's prophet a one-finger salute and walk away. And if you and I had been there, not one of us would have judged her for it. She would have been justified, but she and her son would have died. What does she do? She does it. She went and did as Elijah said. She bakes the bread for him and then she takes some for her son. This is mind-blowing. And frankly, passages like this bother me. You ask too much. You say in Psalm 103, "We're creatures of dust. "God is mindful of our frame. "He remembers that we're just like grass. "But here, what on earth motivates this woman to do what the prophet says? "Why on earth should she believe him? "God, provide the bread and I'll give you a piece of it for your prophet. "You give me the bread. "You give me a whole bucket of flour and a whole thing of oil. "Then I'll do what you say. "We're about to die." God, you ask too much. I wonder how many here feel like that. God, you ask too much. I've been faithful. I've done what you said. I'm still calling out. I'm still praising you. I'm still obeying. I'm not giving myself to a life of sin. But you keep bringing trial after trial. There's no end. God, you ask too much. This woman experiences profound blessing. But it only comes after she does what God has said to her through his prophet. She has to exercise faith. Frankly, irrational faith. There is no reason to believe this is going to work. But it does. She has the prophet's word that the Lord has said this, but does she know who Elijah is? Does she care who Elijah is? Is she even a believer at this point? She acts in faith, but has she heard of the Lord? She knows his name, but we don't know what else she knows. We don't know where she is in her relationship to God. But she obeys. Ultimately she obeys not Elijah, but she obeys the Lord. And after that comes the blessing. Brothers and sisters, we have to remember this. God's not going to make it easy for us to obey. And how many of us say I'll obey when I feel like it, when I feel up for it, when I'm ready? God, you make it easy for me. You lay it out in front of me and then I'll do what you say. And God says, that's not the way it works. I have said you will do. And you know what? He can do that because he's God and we're not. We understand this with our children, don't we? I don't have to explain everything to my children before they obey. They need to obey because I have said it and I am their father. But do I understand this with God? My heavenly father, but also my creator and my Lord. You and I have to remember that we must obey. Whether or not we can see the blessing in front of us. Because that blessing will only follow after obedience. We are sorry our Butterfield talks about this in one of her books. After she was converted out of a life of sexual immorality, out of lesbianism, she becomes a Christian, joins a fairly conservative sort of church and realizes well I guess I should stop growing my hair and dressing like a lesbian. It's like I don't feel any different. She wasn't just making a sort of intellectual face. She had repented of her sin. She had turned to Christ for salvation. But now her, not just her actions, but the way she looks, the way she dresses, all of that has to change. She's very open. I didn't feel any different. She started growing her hair out. She started dressing more feminine. She says the feelings changed after. Obedience first, then the blessing. And at some point in this widow's life, we don't know where exactly in this story. At some point in this widow's life, she had to turn from worshipping Baal, like the rest of her people did, to worshipping the Lord. She had to repent of her sins and trust in Christ for salvation. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you need to know it doesn't matter how many good things you do. It doesn't matter how good of a person you are, how kind you are, how generous you are, how much you come to church, whether you baptize, how many times you've taken the Lord's Supper. If you're not a Christian, you're not under God's blessing. You are under God's curse. And the most important thing for you to hear right now is not for you to try hard or to be a better person. It's not for you to stop doing this or stop doing this. It is this lesson, repent of your sins before Jesus Christ. Ask him to forgive you of your sins. Acknowledge that what he says of you is true. If you're steeped in your sins and apart from him, there is no salvation. That you cannot be good enough to earn his favor or his forgiveness. Your life will not change until you follow him in that step of obedience. But no, on the other side of that step of obedience, his forgiveness, his reconciliation with God, a spiritual family, blessing, and comfort, and hope that you have never in this life experienced. But first, you must repent. Third lesson, third lesson, God's abundance looks different to ours. God's abundance looks different to ours. God does provide for Elijah and for this widow during these two to three years of famine with, well, enough. Not just enough, they're surviving, but enough for today. Daily bread. I like to think that if I obey God, he will pour out of showers of blessing. And Malachi, the end of the Old Testament, God tells his people, test me and see if I don't open the heavens to provide blessing for you, for your obedience. I think that if I obey God, he's not obligated to, because that would be presumptuous. I wouldn't think presumptuous things of God, would I? I think God has promised he'll make it all better. He'll make it more than worthwhile for me. But then I kind of throw in a whole bunch of other things like a Congressional spending bill. I put a whole lot of other things in there that I consider. This is what God's blessing is going to look like. Look, I like lots. When I was in seminary, we had some friends who gave us ink cartridges that we could take to staples and get like $10 a month or $30 a month and get free staple stuff. I bought these notebooks, these fake moleskins. I bought like 25 of them. We moved them all to London and I've moved most of them back now, because I wanted to never run out. The funny thing is they start degrading after a while and kind of a waste of money. I like enough food. Kate and I like, well, I like to cook cheap Chinese food, like takeaway food. I know it's not real Chinese, but it tastes good to my tummy. And I like making a lot and having a full table of food. I like lots. I like plenty. I like the beginning of Thanksgiving. Wednesday night is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, because the rest of the weekend is there to come. There's lots of it. And what does God provide for this woman? Flower and oil. Enough, because our Savior taught us daily bread. Did you notice what the passage doesn't say? And God filled up the barrel of flour. And God filled up the jug of oil. As best as I can tell, this passage shows that this woman went to an empty container of flour. An empty jar of oil every single day for some two to three years, and had to exercise faith as she reached down in the bottom and said, "Is there going to be enough today?" God doesn't give her overflowing. She's got cases and cases of flour and bottles and bottles of oil in the back. The jar's empty. The flour thing is empty. And yet somehow God provides every day. In other words, she has to exercise faith every single day. I can't, God, you ask too much. Can you imagine how wearying that would be? Wouldn't it be great if that first day, hey, it's a miracle. Yay, God provides, and then we're good. That's not the way it works, is it? I was feeling that this week. God, you provided, okay, you provided a church family for us. Great. Where's the house? The faithlessness. Doesn't matter how much God has provided for us in the past. When we face this crisis, all of a sudden we feel like God's forgotten me. I'm on my own. God's provision, God's abundance looks different to ours. It is truly enough. But it's not what we expect. Sometimes it's not exactly what we ask for. And this widow has to, for two to three years, exercise daily faith for daily bread. Again, brothers and sisters, is God enough for you? Today is His grace for the trials you are facing today enough. Is His provision in your life today enough? If we don't think it is, if we're constantly worrying about what comes tomorrow, and look, I know there are many here who have legitimate concerns. It would be insensitive to call them merely worries. But all we have is today. Is our faith strong enough to say what God has provided for today is enough? Let me give three brief closing applications. First, let me urge you, brothers and sisters, dig a deep faith. Before life gets hard, lots of good, godly input, deep books, solid, rich music, listen to sermons. I don't know if it's your practice, but listen to the sermon from Sunday in the middle of the week. How many of you had breakfast today? Okay, anyone going to eat breakfast tomorrow? Okay, let's say dinner. Breakfast is kind of a write-off. How many of you are going to eat dinner tonight? Are you going to eat tomorrow and Tuesday and what? It's a half an hour. I hear Kate. When have you ever preached a half an hour sermon? It's a half an hour, 45 minutes sermon, really enough to sustain us. Listen to sermons during the week. Listen to good input during the week. Listen to good podcasts. Listen to good spiritual input. Lots of us have time driving or doing housework or while we exercise. Use that time to put good stuff in your mind. Doesn't mean it's sinful or wrong to veg out watching a film or listen to music. That's not Christian, but if your faith is struggling, well, put good things in. Build a deep reservoir of faith. These lessons from this widow's life require a deep and weighty faith. Otherwise, our faith is just going to be blown away when we face trials. Second, cultivate intrusive relationships. Cultivate intrusive relationships. Look, it seems like you guys love one another. You're involved in one another's lives. That's good. If you're not doing this, learn to ask good questions. Learn to ask personal questions. Make time to listen to one another. I know so much of this is happening already. I know I'm telling you things you already know, but if you want to have a deep and weighty faith, if you want to be able to deal with the suffering that even godly people face, if you want to be able to remember that obedience comes before blessing, if you want to trust in God's abundance rather than our own abundance, we have to cultivate deep relationships with one another. We're not afraid to ask difficult questions. We're not afraid to be asked difficult questions. There's a godly intrusiveness, not a nosiness, not looking at each other's lives with a... What's this thing? Magnifying glass. Sherlock. Magnifying glass. But most of us are struggles with faith. Our struggles with sin aren't that hidden. They're actually fairly obvious. Most of us know pretty much what we're dealing with. And those around us know what we're dealing with. A third, grow a significant thankfulness. I think Esteban was praying for this. That it's good for us to praise God and thank God. And so brothers and sisters, praise and thank God every day, even if your heart's not in it. Cry out to God, but make sure every time you cry out to God, there's a place for praise and thanksgiving. Do you notice that in the Psalms with one exception? Every psalm that cries out to God gets to some place of praise and thanksgiving. No matter how dark it is with one exception, so there is a place when we're on the verge of complete despair. But the rest of the Psalms get to a place of praise. Thank God for what he's provided for today and mean it. Even if all he's provided for is our daily bread. That was enough for this widow. Is it enough for us? Do we cultivate a heart attitude of thankfulness for God? First because he saved us of our sins. And then he's provided us innumerable blessings beside, like we sang in great is life, faithfulness. Brothers and sisters, I can't guarantee that will make your life better. Can't guarantee that's going to change your circumstances, but it will grow your faith. And it will bring your heart into a greater position of humility before God. It will bring your heart into a greater position of submission before God. And that's really what's most important for us. Not our provision, not that our needs are met, but that our hearts are thankful, that our hearts are humble and our hearts are submissive. And funny enough, after that comes happiness and blessing. Through the pain, through the trial, through the path of obedience, and then comes happiness and blessing and contentment. Let me pray. Oh, by the way, praise you that you have provided in scripture for people like this widow and your prophet Elijah. Father, we thank you and praise you that you have provided for us. Forgive us for having greedy and stingy hearts. We want to hoard your blessings, like the Israelites and manna. Father, we thank you that you've provided enough for us today. Father, help us have faith. Our faith is weak, it's fragile. Help us to remember you, Lord God, creator of heaven and earth. The one who has saved us from our sins, you are enough. May we hope in you as the God who is enough. May we rejoice in you for the provision you have given us today. May we take it as your good gift. May we receive it with praise and thanksgiving. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]