Daily Bible Reading Devotional – June 1st, 2016


Scripture Reading(s)


1 Kings 17:8-16, (17-24)

17:8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

17:9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

17:10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”

17:11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

17:12 But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

17:13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.

17:14 For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.”

17:15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.

17:16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.

17:17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

17:18 She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!”

17:19 But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed.

17:20 He cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

17:21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”

17:22 The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

17:23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.”

17:24 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.”


Reflections


Justin-Holmes1.jpg

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.”

For many centuries the proof that God was real and that His followers carried His name were the miracles that accompanied His people. This is clear in the gospel stories as well as the book of Acts which record the birth of the early church. Virtually all of the OT prophets were accompanied by signs and wonders. Nearly all of God’s chosen were gifted with super natural abilities. At some point we much recognize that God is supernatural and if His Spirit is in us, we will exhibit a certain amount of that supernatural character.

That is not to say that we will all walk on water or raise the dead but Jesus did say that His followers would do greater things than even He did. Without giving any credence to the Name-it and Claim-it theology on TV, I would suggest that we have far too little faith that God will perform miracles today, through His people. We should fully expect that God will use us to bless others in miraculous ways that will open the eyes and ear of those who do not yet believe.

You do not want to be a person that only believes in a God who does little things. If you only believe God to do little things then you will always have little results.


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