Putting God First

Putting God First

Widow From Zarephath

Read: 1 Kings 17:7-14

My first book contract came at a time when my husband had been unemployed for two years. Our adult son, who lived at home, had also been laid off, and our daughter had just finished high school. Even working temporary jobs, we had to cash in retirement funds, which were now almost gone. The generous advance would help with the bills, including our property taxes. Then I remembered a long-ago prayer from when I fantasized about being a writer—I would give God all the money from my first sale in each different type of writing. Uh-oh. But with our situation, did he expect me to follow through?

The woman in this Bible passage also faced a difficult decision. How shocked the poor widow must have been when Elijah asked her for bread. Everyone knew that the area suffered from a severe famine caused by drought. Surely he could tell from one glance at her emaciated body that she was the last person to have extra food. Yet even after she explained that she had only enough flour and oil for a last meal for herself and her son, the man instructed her to serve him first. How could he ask such a thing?

Sometimes God asks us to demonstrate our faith in him by doing something that doesn’t make sense from a human standpoint. He may ask us to give something up that we treasure or to put someone else’s needs before our own. When God’s call conflicts with human logic, we have tough decisions to make. Will we put our own reasoning aside and depend on his wisdom? Can we trust him to take care of us? Does he have the right to ask us to share our last morsel of food when we have a hungry child? Could he expect us to give him money based on an old promise rather than use it to pay necessary bills?

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Matthew 6:33