Today, we have a lesson in God’s miraculous provision when we trust him enough to offer what we already have. God’s math doesn’t make sense, but will you open your hands so you can live in the divine provision of an unlimited God? It’s hard to fill a closed hand, my sister. It’s time to open your hand, open your mind, and open your heart. God has some filling to do!

Last week, we ended with episode #1873, “God Will Provide”. We read in 1 Kings 17 how God called Elijah away to a safe place by a brook during a drought. There, God kept the water flowing and a raven bringing him food every morning and evening. Elijah learned trained dependence and trained obedience. Elijah couldn’t make the raven deliver food, he had to depend on God for that. Elijah couldn’t predict how long that little brook would still have water, he had to be obedient to stay until God told him to leave.

He was in training, just like you and I are in training. We’re learning to be dependent on God with these circumstances we can’t control. We’re learning to be obedient to God with these predicaments we can’t predict.

Then, God allows the brook to dry up in his divine timing because it’s time for Elijah to go to his next divine encounter. Someone needs to hear today that this thing you’ve been counting on has come to an end because God says it’s time to move now. It’s not a punishment, nor is it a dead end. It’s simply a prompting to go where God is leading you next because staying here is not his best for you.

I’ve learned to pray for closed doors so I keep moving down the hallway to God’s best door for me. I no longer want to settle for what my fickle feelings want in the moment. I don’t want to stay here just because it’s easy or familiar, all while sacrificing God’s better plan for me, even if it’s harder. Hey, if it’s hard, God will strengthen you for it. Stop avoiding hard. It’s time to step in faith toward the hard move you’re being prompted to make. When the brook dries up, where is God telling you to go next?

God said to Elijah in 1 Kings 17, verse 8, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” Now that makes absolutely no sense. God, you’ve been hand feeding me in miraculous ways here at this brook every morning and every night. Why can’t we just stay here. You have the power to keep that brook flowing, why won’t you just sustain it longer? A widow is the poorest of all people, and that’s who you want me to ask for food? Lord, you’re not making sense here!

The distance from the dried up brook to this specific village God has said to go to was 85 miles … on foot … in a drought … without a snack pack and a 40 ounce water bottle. And remember, there are people who want to kill Elijah because he’s the one who announced the drought, so he was blamed for it. The argument for staying right where he was must have been strong. But, his trained dependence and trained obedience is kicking in, and he goes.

Verse 10-12, “So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, ‘Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?’ As she was going to get it, he called to her, ‘Bring me a bite of bread, too.’ But she said, ‘I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.'”

Dang. Talk about barking up the wrong tree. He had just asked this woman for the very last of what she had. She was preparing for her and her son to eat their last meal and then starve. And this complete stranger asked her to share?!!!

Verse 13-14, “But Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”

Okay, pause for a moment. Imagine being this woman. What would you do? Would you believe God could really provide for you like that? Would you dare to trust God’s math that doesn’t make sense, knowing what you have is already not enough, but now trusting that when you obediently share to serve it will somehow become more and not run out?

As you and I struggle with what we would do, let’s read what this woman does. Verse 15-16, “So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.”

Her open hands allowed a supernatural filling. And your open hands will do the same.

Her closed hands would have kept the little she had to be enough for one last meal only and she would have never know God’s math. Y’all, I want to know God’s math!!!! That means my faith must lead me into uncomfortable situations of giving and serving with open hands, even when it hurts to give. I’m good at giving when it feels good to give, but what about when it hurts to give? What about when it makes no sense to serve?

To really understand God’s divine alignment in bringing Elijah to this poor widow’s house, you must read the rest of the story. It wasn’t just about a meal. It wasn’t just about a place to stay. It wasn’t just about provisions until the drought passed. Serving now was about the future saving of her son!

Verse 17-24: “Some time later the woman’s son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. Then she said to Elijah, ‘O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?’ But Elijah replied, ‘Give me your son.’ And he took the child’s body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?’ And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, please let this child’s life return to him.’ The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived! Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. ‘Look!’ he said. ‘Your son is alive!’ Then the woman told Elijah, ‘Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.'”

Serving when it was hard led to the saving of her son.

Trained dependence and trained obedience.

Once again, this woman had to open up her hands when it must have been so hard. She was holding on to her only child who had just died and Elijah says, “Give me your son”, and he took the child’s body from her arms and carried him upstairs. She had to let go again, but it was her only hope.

Trained dependence and trained obedience.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, “This same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches.” I know that’s true. I’ve seen it in my own life. It’s God math.

My friend, I don’t know what you’re holding on to, but your closed hands can’t receive God’s blessings. I don’t know where you’ve been called to serve and you’ve been hesitating because it simply doesn’t make sense, but this could be so much bigger than what you see today … this could be the very way God is going to save you next.

God is training you to depend on him, and him alone. When it’s easy and when it’s hard.

God is training you to be obedient to him. When it makes sense and when it doesn’t.

Open hands receive blessings. Closed hands simply cannot be filled.

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela

Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim

Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com