By Every Word That Proceeds From the Mouth of the Lord

I Kings 17:8-16 (NKJV)
8 Then the word of the Lord came to (Elijah), saying,
9 "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink."
11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand."
12 So she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, 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."
13 And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.
14 "For thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.'"
15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.

Now there was a great famine in the land because king Ahab had betrayed God and turned the nation of Israel to worship Baal, and so God had cursed the land to drought and famine by the prophet Elijah. As a result, Elijah went into hiding from Ahab under the guidance and protection of the Lord. Here in these verses Elijah comes to his second place of hiding, to a Gentile widow woman in Zarephath.

I see here that the Lord tells Elijah he "has" commanded this woman in Zarephath to provide for him. So when the prophet comes to her and requests her providence, she already has it on her heart that God wants her to provide for this man. When Elijah asks for water, she immediately goes to fetch some, but when he calls out for her to bring him some bread also, I can almost see her stop in her tracks, and her shoulders drop a little, as she turns to say, "You are asking for all that I have. To keep nothing back for my own providence and that of my family."

Wow! How often I have been this woman! At the tithe box, knowing that if I tithe as God has required, I will not have enough left to make ends meet. At the freeway exit, knowing that I don't have anything but that $20 bill to give that guy with the sign and knowing I don't have anything but that same $20 bill to buy groceries for the week.

I don't hesitate to give some. I don't hesitate to give a lot. But that's not what God wants. He wants everything! He wants me to leave nothing in reserve, and to trust Him to provide, whether I can see how that is possible or not.

I take notice that Elijah required the first cake, and for the widow to trust God's promise to provide for her and her son. He doesn't need that first cake to make sure "he gets his." He's speaking for God. He's asking this woman to take her trust out of that little bit of bread to sustain her, and to put that trust in His word. He's asking for her heart. The moment she gave that up, her life was changed forever.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV)
3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."