A Simple Yes
For 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.’”
Elijah and the Widow
I was listening to a sermon on 1 Kings 17:7-16 and what struck me wasn’t what the preacher was saying but what the Holy Spirit was highlighting for me personally that morning through the Scripture. In these verses we meet a woman who was, in some senses, vulnerable. She was a widow with a young son (verse 23).
They are in a season of drought, and this caused famine-like conditions. She is in the middle of collecting enough tinder to make a final meal for her and her son when Elijah approaches the widow and asks for water and some bread.
She tells Elijah the bleak reality, they barely have enough for themselves, let alone any to share. He replies that God will miraculously provide. Did she wonder if he was a swindler? Preying on the kindness of others for his own survival? Would she give this man their last meal and be left with nothing?
Her Simple Yes
What struck me that Sunday morning was the woman’s decision to say “yes.” She didn’t have the means to be generous. At least it didn’t appear that way. But in her willingness to be used by God, in her willingness to be generous, God provided. She, within her own capacity and resources did not have enough. But as she trusted God; in this case with her very life, she experienced God’s generosity.
In the Way of Jesus
Jesus modeled a life of generosity. His very incarnation, being born of a woman in order to experience full humanity while remaining fully God, was a generous act. While on this earth Jesus gave his time, attention, power, and eventually his very life for others, for us. Followers of Jesus are called to live in the way of Jesus, and that includes being generous.
What the story of Elijah and the Widow reminds me of is that my capacity to be generous is far more dependent on my willingness to say yes; to trust Jesus, and what he is asking of me, whether my time and energy or my money. Being generous has more to do with my heart than what is in my hands. Generosity begins with my “yes” to what God is asking of me, even if I may not yet understand how He will provide.
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