So much has happened these last few weeks and things keep changing every day! Praying for all of us to stay safe, flexible, and know how to navigate our responsibilities and callings in the coming days.
The practical angst related to an incredulous lack of toilet paper aside, the more difficult quest for most of us is the search for serenity… Be still my soul… But how?
Over the last week, amidst alternating days of depression and clarity, God brought me peace by meditating on the stories of Elijah being fed by ravens beside a brook and then sent to the widow of Zarephath. Both are wonderful accounts of God’s provision and care that I’ll share below. I’ll then conclude with the three insights that have helped me the most to date.
“Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, ‘As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!’
Then the LORD said to Elijah, ‘Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food.’
So Elijah did as the LORD told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.
Then the LORD said to Elijah, ‘Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.’
So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, ‘Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?’ As she was going to get it, he called to her, ‘Bring me a bite of bread, too.’
But she said, ‘I swear by the LORD your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.’
But Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the LORD sends rain and the crops grow again!’
So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.”
1 Kings 17:1-16- NLT
And here are those three insights– the second two are taken from Elijah by the late Bible teacher A.W. Pink (Banner of Truth, pages 63-64):
- Go outside and pray. Simply taking a walk can alleviate stress by connecting us with God’s good creation. He gives us green pastures, still waters, and refreshing brooks just like Elijah. He’s made the sunshine to do powerful things in our spirits and bodies. As you walk, notice the trees, buttercups, forsythia, magnolia, dogwood and cherry blossoms, etc. The daffodils, especially, provided wonderful reminders to me this week: to look for beauty even when it’s hard, and that there will be a change of seasons– that “this too shall pass.” As environmentalist John Muir wrote, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” And many of us need this kind of health to give reflective leadership in the coming days.
- Cultivate the holy habit of seeing the hand of God in everything that happens to you. “Behold! She comes forth as if on purpose to meet him: yet he did not know her, nor she him. It has all the appearance of being accidental, and yet it was decreed and arranged by God so as to make good his word to the prophet. Ah, my reader, there is no event in this world, however great or however small, which happens by chance… how blessed to be assured that the ‘steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,’(Psalm 37:23). It is sheer unbelief which disconnects the ordinary things of life from God. All our circumstances and experiences are directed by the Lord, for ‘of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen,’ Romans 11:36).
- Remember, God is at work at both ends of a crisis. “When God works He always works at both ends of the line: If Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt seeking food in time of famine, Joseph is moved to give it to them. If Israel’s spies enter Jericho, there is a Rahab raised up to shelter them. If Modecai is begging God to come to the deliverance of this threatened people, King Ahasuerus is rendered sleepless, made to research the state records and befriend Mordecai and his fellows. If the Ethiopian eunuch is desirous of an understanding of God’s Word, Phillip is sent to expound it to him. If Cornelius is praying for an opening up of the Gospel, Peter is charged to preach it to him. Elijah had received no intimation as to where this widow resided, but Divine providence timed her steps so that she encountered him at the entrance of the city. What encouragements to faith are these!”
***Let’s remember to pray for and encourage our pastors during this time. In my immediate area, I’m surrounded by some great ones– Ken Larter, Mark Ott, Jamie Cupshalk, and Andrew Smith. In fact, here is an excellent exposition of the passage above preached last week by Andrew, pastor of Presbyterian Church of Kennett Square in Kennett Square, PA where Pam and I are members.