“What if She Hadn’t Given Her Last Cake…”
I Kings 17… I just really love this story… there is a famine in the land of Samaria. There’s been no rain in three years, so all the brooks have dried up. Elijah, the Prophet, has been by the brook Che-rith, drinking water and being fed by the ravens, sent by God. Now, “his brook has dried up.” God sends him to a “widow woman” to “sustain him.”
But, she and her son are on the brink of death… maybe God made a mistake and sent him to the wrong woman? He sees this poor woman and her thin, boney hands, fetching a little bit of water. He calls to ask her for a drink. He calls out to her as she is going, “While you’re at it, bring me some bread too.” She then goes into the story of how she has just a handful of meal and a little oil in the cruise, and she is going to “bake her last cake and she and her son will eat it… and die.” Elijah then says, “Bake me a cake, first.”
I started to wonder, “What if” she hadn’t baked that cake for the man of God? She and her son would have died of starvation. End of story. But, God is the God of “multiplication!” He always multiplies what we give, especially if it is a “sacrifice.”
Happily, her “meal barrow” never runs out of the meal, and her “cruise of oil” multiplies so much that she went into business “selling it” and making money to live on… until God sends rain on the earth. Don’t ever wonder “if” God wants you to give your last handful of meal. He wants you to do it because He wants to bless you!!
Have a great day!!!
Sherry