Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Opening Question
What is one big thing you are excited about right now? What is one small, perhaps hidden blessing you are currently savoring?
Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
– 1 Kings 17:8-16
The Smallness of Elijah
In the passage, we see God call Elijah— the loyal, righteous man of God in his generation— to Zarephath, where he must rely on a widow’s generosity to survive. In the sermon, we learned that Zarephath means “refinement,” or, “smelting place,” a place where things are melted down and impurities are burned away through fire and heat.
What do you imagine Elijah thought and felt about God sending him to Zarephath?
What would you expect to happen if God told you he wanted to refine you for a season?
We so rarely expect God’s will for us to involve becoming smaller, weaker, or more needy, and yet that is what happens to Elijah. What spiritual practices can help us be more open and ready for God to waylay our path or prune away our comfort?
The Widow’s Emptiness
God sends Elijah to a widow suffering in the middle of a great famine. She expects to eat the last of her food and die. But instead, she feeds Elijah and God miraculously refills her supplies.
Imagine her plight, not knowing how or where she could get more food, and yet giving away all she had to feed a stranger. How do you think she was able to make that choice?
In modern culture, we have come to believe that having more and better things will make us happy and give our life meaning. How have you heard that idea communicated in the world? What do you do to counteract it?
Why do you think God wants us to be generous with our wealth and belongings? How do you practice generosity in your daily life?
The Fullness of the Word
We heard in the sermon that the phrase “the word of the Lord,” or devar hashem in Hebrew, was a way of describing God at work in the world. Naming something as devar hashem was a way of saying the active will of God was manifesting itself in time, space, history. God was not far off, he was near. It is the devar hashem that came to Elijah.
Christians understand that Jesus is Word made flesh, the true devar hashem, the active will of God who has come in human from to rescue his people.
The word of the Lord called Elijah to face his need for God’s provision. How does the gospel similarly call us to face our greatest need for forgiveness and redemption?
Elijah’s obedience to smallness and the widow’s obedience to be generous worked together to provide for both of them in the middle of a famine. What “famines” do we face in our current world? What practical choices could help us live smaller, more generous lives in the middle of those “famines”?
Closing Thought
“Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We look so bedraggled and pathetic doing it, hanging on to the dead branch of a bank account for dear life, afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of giving. We don’t think we can live generously because we have never tried. But the sooner we start the better, for we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait the less time we have for the soaring and swooping life of grace.”
– Eugene H. Peterson, Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best
Spend your final time together asking God to show you ways you can live more generously. Ask him to speak to you and refine you, to make you more like Christ so that you can fill the world with his great love.