Book: 10 Life Lessons from Prophet Elijah and the Poor Widow

This blog post is an excerpt from the book 10 Life Lessons from Prophet Elijah and the Poor Widow.   

Obey God

When the Cherith Brook dried up, God told Elijah, "Go to Zarephath and live there.  I have commanded a widow to provide for you."

Elijah responded obediently for he arose and went to Zarephath. (1 Kings 17:8-10) He did not complain to God that he had moved from where he was when he prophesied about the drought to King Ahab to go to the Brook Cherith and now he had to move again since it had dried and go to Zarephath which was in Sidon. Therefore obey God’s instructions because He is the one Who knows what He has planned for your future.

When Elijah arrived at the Zarephath city gate, he found a widow gathering sticks and asked her to bring him some water to drink. The widow obediently stopped doing what she had been doing and went to get him water. (1 Kings 17:10-11)

This widow's act of obedience was itself a sacrifice because Elijah asked her for water which was a scarce commodity at that time due to the drought. This drought had affected a large area because Elijah later told her 'The bin of flour shall not be used up and the jar of oil shall not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.'" (1 Kings 17:14) This shows us the earth was affected by the drought and not just King Ahab's territory.

Therefore be obedient when God asks you to do something even if it is uncomfortable for you to do so for To obey God is better than sacrifice and to heed Him is better than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22)

First Obey the First Instructions

As the widow displayed her obedience by going to get the water, Elijah called out to her and gave her the next instructions when he asked her to bring him a piece of bread. (1 Kings 17:11)

This shows us that when God speaks to us either directly through prayer and His Word or indirectly through His prophets, we have to obey the first set of instructions He gives us if we want Him to move on and give us the next set of instructions.

We can also see that this obedience does not even have to be in actually doing the thing but in preparing to do it because the widow did not actually bring Elijah water, she displayed her obedience by Going to get it. (1 Kings 17:11)

Therefore when God asks you to do something, begin taking the necessary steps for doing it because obedience to the first set of instructions can lead to the next set of instructions where your miracle may lie like in this woman's case for her miracle was in being provided with food and not water, during the famine.

To learn all the lessons read 10 Life Lessons from Prophet Elijah and the Poor Widow

 

   

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