As Christians, we are often called to have faith.  There are times God promises things that seem impossible, if we will only put our faith in Christ.

We are used to relying on our senses and past experiences to tell us what is possible, so when God promises something we haven't yet experienced, it's easy to forget that the One who created everything can certainly grant whatever He promises.  Yet in spite of our doubts and questions, we are asked simply to act on faith.

1 Kings 17:7-24 (NIV)

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  Then the word of the Lord came to [Elijah]: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.  I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."  So he went to Zarephath.  When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks.  He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?"  As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."

"As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread - only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.  I am gathering a few sticks to take home and maek a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it - and die."

Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid.  Go home and do as you have said.  But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.  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 gives rain upon the land.'"

She went away and did as Elijah had told her.  So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.  For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill.  He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.  She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God?  Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

"Give me your son, Elijah replied.  He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.  Then he cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?"  Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!"

The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived.  Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house.  He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth."

 

The woman in this story is presented with a dilemma: she has precious little to eat, and a stranger is asking her to give up even the little that she has.  It can only be faith that moves her to give Elijah some bread; certainly his promise of unending oil and flour was far too unbelievable!

As is often the case when God asks us for faith, the woman's faith isn't totally blind.  She knows that sharing her last bits of food with a hungry stranger is the right thing to do, even though it doesn't seem very practical in the situation.  As Christians, we live with promises of a better life after this one, and yet like the woman, we also have doubts.  What if it's too fantastic to be true?  What if the promises are wrong?

It's those doubts that show our true colors, because if we had 100% certainty that everything would be judged in the end, we'd have no temptation to do the wrong thing.  The woman's actions here are noble only because she didn't know for sure if Elijah's prediction would come true.  She did the right thing in spite of her doubts.  If she had already known for certain that she had a neverending flour pot, there would have been no sacrifice involved in giving Elijah as much as he wanted.

God asks us to do the things we know are right anyway.  He promises rewards for obeying, but we're allowed to doubt because our doubts show who we really are.  What if there is no reward?  Am I still willing to make this sacrifice?

And in our lives, as in the woman's story, the results follow our faithful obedience.  The woman shares her home and her food with Elijah, and as a result both she and her son are spared the full effects of the drought.  Yet it is not until the results of both her and Elijah's faith are made plain through the resurrection of her son that she finally has the proof she seeks.

Notice that at the end of the passage the woman says, "Now I know that you are a man of God...."

Everything before that was faith.