Text: 1 Kings 17:8-16
Memory verse:
”“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”“
Genesis 8:22 NKJV
Scott Lewis, the owner of Scott Machinery, once attended a conference where Evangelist Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, challenged people to give one million dollars to fulfill the Great Commission. Like Sarah in the Bible, Scott laughed as that amount was far beyond his earning; income from his business was under $50,000 annually.
When Bill asked Scott how much he gave last year, he said, “We gave $17,000, about 35 percent of our income.” Bill responded, “Over the next year, why don’t you make a goal of giving $50,000?”
Scott thought Bill hadn’t yet understood. He wasn’t making up to $50,000 annually! Yet, he and his wife chose to trust God with Bill’s challenge, asking Him to do the impossible. Amazingly, God made ways, and with a miraculous December 31st provision, they were able to give the $50,000. By the next year, they set a goal of giving $100,000, and God provided it again.
Thus, Scott wrote a note to Bill saying that in 2001, they passed the one million dollar giving mark. Thereafter, they progressed in giving!
Sometimes, we act as if God is intimidated by our needs. No, God can’t be exhausted, nor can we run Him bankrupt. In our text, Elijah wasn’t bothered about the severity of the famine nor about the need of the widow but about her seed. As she obeyed, the supply was miraculously opened. “As the LORD had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.” (1 Kings 17:16 CEV).
Whenever there is a failure in supply, it is not caused by capability issues but rather a capacity problem. That is, it is not because God has no capability but because man has no capacity to receive what God is supplying. The oil stopped flowing because there were no more vessels to receive it and not because God was exhausted. Your capacity to receive is your faith to believe God.
God is never moved by the size of your needs but by your faith. The size of the mountain or the sycamore tree doesn’t matter to God but your faith (Matt 17:20; Mark 11:23). Likewise, God is not moved by your need but by your seed. This is because your seed is a reflection of your faith.
Friends, as long as the earth remains, there will always be a lack in the land, but the just shall live by faith. Your faith is seen in the seed you sow, and it is the seed you sow that grows not the one you keep.
Prayer points
1. Father, help me to always live by faith and not by my reasoning or by sight, in Jesus’ name.
2. I bind the spirit of fear, doubt, and unbelief, and I cast them out from my life, in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. God is not moved by need but by seed, and my seed is a reflection of my faith.
2. I fear no famine for my continuous faith seed secures my future.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng