Faith

Faith

1 Kings 17:7-24

1 Kings 17:7-15

Faith isn't easy

2 Kings 17:15-24

When you look at the Widow, she was asked to give up her last meal to a stranger.

If she was wrong, her family would die sooner than expected.

Faith means that we trust God's promise before we see the outcome.

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15She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

17Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

19“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

22The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

24Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

7Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”

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Faith

Background

God rewards faith

Webster defines faith as trust in something or someone.

Hebrews 11:1 - "Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

I like to think that faith is trust in the face of doubt.

God is happy when we do show faith in Him, but it means that we are required to take the first step.

God is not going to lead us somewhere that is going to ultimately be bad for us, even if the middle looks tough.

Faith is just taking one step at a time to take you where God wants you to go.

In this story we are introduced to a guy named Elijah. Elijah is a prophet sent from God because Ahab (the king of Israel) was disobedient to God.

God instructed Elijah to tell Ahab that it will not rain until Elijah said so and as a result there was a severe drought.

Elijah eventually went to a place in Sidon (outside Israel) where the following story takes place.