The Provision of the Living Word

DAILY BYTE

We’ve been journeying this week through a story in 1 Kings – a story of fear and a story of provision. And at the close of this story, we reach Step 3 of learning to accept God’s power to provide.

After relinquishing our fear and giving of ourselves, we hear some key words from the woman in the story. She was first called a lacking widow and then, she became an overstuffed mistress of the house.

We now find that the writer of 1 Kings simply calls her - a woman. God has lifted her off the seesaw of lack and overabundance, and she is resting in the knowledge that she is simply human with both needs and gifts, and God is simply God – with everything.

We hear from this woman, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” When we experience God’s provision in our lives, we experience the true power that God has throughout the whole world.

And we are reminded that this provision is available to us every day through the Word of the Lord.

In the scriptures we find food, sustenance, empowerment, courage, and hope. It is not reserved for the haves or the have nots – God’s words of life are for everyone.

God’s provision is for all to have, and it’s brought about in the world often through people like you and like me. Ordinary humans – women and men who “have” and “have not” all in one, but when we allow God’s word to guide us to share what we do have, we find that no one is without.

A meal is served at our church every Sunday evening. It is a meal that we most often describe as catering to the homeless. And at first glance when you go, it’s pretty easy for your eyes to label the “haves” and “have nots.”

Most often, people who “have” a lot of stuff serve the meal. Most often, people who lack most material possessions eat the meal.

But sometimes, it’s served by people who also lack material possessions, and sometimes it is eaten by people who are very wealthy.

But this is not the point of the meal. In the midst of providing and receiving, I think the hope of everyone participating there is that the lines we draw between haves and have nots will become blurry. That those who traditionally receive will also give, and those who often give, will receive. Both groups share in the reading of the Scriptures and the offering of prayer together.

And that through those experiences, the hope is that the labels we put on each other will be ripped off, and we will simply become human, relinquishing our fears of one another, learning to give of ourselves, and coming to see ourselves not as lacking or triumphing but as people who follow and are used by a God who provides.

We don’t always succeed – as individuals, as a church, or as a nation. Sometimes we act in power-hungry, fearful ways.

But we remember this week that God is neither fearful nor power-hungry. The God we worship is a God who has everything and chooses to provide for us in love. We journey every day with this God.

And so, get behind the wheel today not with timidity but with courage - and allow God to drive you forward.

FOCUS TEXT

1 Kings 21:24b (NRSV)

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

PRAY AS YOU GO

Providing God, teach us to turn to the provision of Your Word. So many words are thrown at us every day that our minds and hearts become jumbled and directionless. We make decisions out of fear instead of acting out of your confidence. We forget that the story of Your relationship with Your people in the Scriptures gives rich life and hope to us today, thousands of years later. Open our eyes so that we may find ourselves in that story. Your story. Hope our hearts to share it with one another so that we all will receive Your provision. Amen.