God Still Provides even When There is Lack of Provisions

1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab,"As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by the word."
2: The word of the Lord came to him, saying,
3: "Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of Jordan.
4:it shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there."
5: So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of Jordan.
6: The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7: It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
Later: He was sent to the home of a widow in Zarephath, and she provided him with water, and made bread for him out of the last of her oil and flour. He promised her if she would give all she had to him to eat, the Lord would continue to provide enough oil and flour to make bread until the drought was over. Every time she would use it up, when she went back and was supplied with more.

This is the story for team kid's this Thursday, and my sister Wanda will be teaching the lesson. I am so thankful that she comes home each year at this time. After the Bible lesson she will be sharing something about her life as a missionary. I am not yet sure what she will share, but I am looking forward to it.

As I was reading the lesson, it reminded me once again that in the Bible there are many places and many experiences where God provided bread, meat and water to those who put their faith and trust in Him, when there was absolutely no other way that the people could be provided for other than through God's miracles, signs and wonders. We have the Israelites getting water out of a rock and manna from heaven and the quails that were sent after they left Egypt. We have this story about Elijah and how the Lord sent him to this brook in the middle of nowhere where he could get water and ravens sending meat and bread. When that provision was gone, the Lord spoke again and instructed him to go to Zarephath, where he used up this widow's only provisions and yet the love of God and the widow's faith caused her to continue receiving a supply of food until the drought was over. We also have the miracle of the fish and bread that were fed to the large crowd gathered at the beach in the New Testament gospels and after all the people ate the crumbs that were collected were more than what was in the basket before they began feeding all those people. There are also many passages about droughts and people going through times of lacking what they needed, and several passages about rain and water refreshing people and causing things to grow properly.

I am also reminded that Christ gives us living waters and also He is the bread of life. I am beginning to trust more in the Word of God as time goes by, because it is the source of my strength, wisdom and it is living and breathing and moving in us to bring us closer to the divine purpose God has for our lives. I can do nothing without Christ. So I praise Him for His word that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The same God who worked powerfully in these examples of people in the Bible in miraculous ways is still alive today, and I need to put my trust in Him, because He is the one who created all things and He made them out of nothing. He simply spoke the words of what He wanted to make, and they instantly came into being. His Word is able to accomplish much no wonder it is referred to as bread, meat, and water.

We need those things to survive and He has left it for us, so I need to appreciate His word, and let the Holy Spirit guide and teach me what Christ wants me to learn.