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Invisible Blessings

Updated: Feb 12, 2020


“I think it pisses God off when you walk past the colour purple in a field and don’t notice it.” -Shug Avery The Color Purple

This is a simple devotional from February 8-9th, 2012. The scriptural reference is 1 Kings 17:7-24. This is a passage well-known to many people but let’s take a quick minute to explore it again, and I’ll just mention the things that God spoke to me through the scripture. But, after reading this devotional, PLEASE take a moment to read the scripture for yourself and see what God desires to say to YOU through His Word.

1 Kings 17:7-24 is the story of the “Widow at Zarephath.” (take a moment to read it… I’ll wait. 🙂 )

“Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” -1 Kings 17:24

So, these are just my observations and the things that God convicted me with as I read this story and really took time to meditate/chew on His Word.

1.) God calls his prophet, Elijah to get up and go to Zarephath, which was in Sidon. In other words, God calls Elijah to go dwell in a Phoenician land, not an Israelite land. He calls him to go to dwell amongst a cursed people, and in fact with a cursed woman amongst a cursed people[1]. There are two things that we can observe and apply from this part of the story:

  1. Elijah was called to go to an unexpected place, but he went without  question and without hesitation! He was confident in what the Lord told him and he was confident that the Lord KNEW what He was doing, and so Elijah did what the Lord told him to even though it seemed strange.

  2. God sent Elijah to a WIDOW in Zarephath of Sidon. In other words, God sent Elijah to the cursed of the cursed[2]. What I glean from this is if God can use the ‘cursed of the cursed’ then he can surely use me! Don’t ever overestimate who you are without God, but don’t ever UNDERESTIMATE who you can be WITH God! For, it’s not YOU who is great, but the God IN you that is! God can use anyTHING and anyONE that He so desires, so stop making excuses, let Him use you! (Message! LOL)

2) Now, what we know is that since this woman is a Sidonian, she is a Phoenician and Phoenicians by and large practiced pagan religions. Yet, when Elijah asked her to make him a cake of bread she said, “As surely as the Lord your God lives I don’t have any bread…” Okay, wait, stop, hold the phone!……. So a woman who likely serves pagan gods (because she recognized God as Elijah’s God, not her own) recognizes and acknowledges that the God that Elijah serves, Yahweh…. I Am;  she recognizes and acknowledges that THIS God is the living God! And WE, who claim to serve this God, we, who claim to worship this God, we, who claim to love this God, walk around like He’s still in the grave. We walk around, like we have no hope, like we serve a DEAD god! Our God is the true and living God and we walk around like he’s a dead, voiceless, powerless god. We walk around defeated, like this woman who was preparing to die……

3) This widow had to have believed what the man of God told her. She had to have believed that if she made him a cake of bread that the Word of the Lord would be true in her life: that her oil and her flour wouldn’t run dry before the famine was over. The reason I know she had to have believed it is because SHE DID IT! This man asked her to make him a cake of bread BEFORE she made one for herself and her son; and SHE DID IT! I don’t know about you, but if I didn’t believe that what the man of God said was true, I would’ve gone home and handled my business and he would’ve never seen me again… EVER! But this woman decided to try something DIFFERENT to see if she could FINALLY get a different result! Clearly serving her gods wasn’t getting her anywhere, so she decided to break out of the cycle of insanity and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! BUT… much like us, this woman still wasn’t convinced…

4) This woman, DAILY, SAW the provision, the miracle, the Word of God alive in her life! DAILY, this woman saw that what the Lord had spoken was coming to pass! DAILY, this woman saw the hand of God, DAILY she saw the difference between her situation when she was serving her gods and her situation when she chose to do what God required! DAILY, she saw this…. and STILL didn’t believe! (we know this because of her words in 1 Kings 17:24)… And while we’re all looking at her like she’s crazy, think about this: THAT’S US! At least in this woman’s defense we could say that she didn’t claim God as her own; but what excuse do we have?! We claim to have RELATIONSHIP with God, and we STILL don’t believe in Him, even though we see His provision, miracle and Word in our lives DAILY!

The Wrap-Up: This woman waited until she experienced DEATH in her life. She waited until her heart had been ripped out and trampled on, with the death of her son. She waited to experience death and the miraculous raising of her son from the dead before she believed that God spoke the truth through Elijah! She experienced the DAILY provision, miracle and Word of God in her life and didn’t cherish and appreciate it until death happened! The lesson to learn here? Don’t wait for death; be it, physical, emotional, or spiritual, before you acknowledge, cherish and APPRECIATE the daily provision, miracle, and Word of God in your life! The ONLY death God desires in our lives is dying to our FLESH DAILY! And I’m just crazy enough to believe that it’s no coincidence that we must die to flesh daily. I believe that WHEN we die to flesh we are more readily able to see God moving in our lives. We are LESS likely to pass by even the small blessings because our flesh isn’t in our way blocking our vision!

God’s Word for ME in this text is that I need to NOT walk past the color purple in my field and ignore it! God says, “I provide you with ALL that you need DAILY, I grant you NEW MERCIES DAILY, I show you my Word in your life DAILY!” and His question to me is, “Now, will you pass by all this beauty I give you everyday or will you NOTICE IT and Praise me for it? Will you walk right past all of the beauty I created specifically for you in your life or will you take notice?”

That’s a heavy question, but I believe it’s one that God is also asking you: Will you DAILY wake-up and look past God’s BLESSINGS (big and small) as if they’re invisible; or will you wake-up with your EYES OPEN (spiritual eyes) and take notice of all of the beautiful purple that God has placed in your field? And will you PRAISE HIM FOR IT?!

Acknowledge your INVISIBLE BLESSINGS! I WILL!

Footnotes

1 Zarephath is in Sidon. Sidon is a Phoenician city, in fact, it is the greatest of the Phoenician cities. Also, note that this city is a chief city of the Canaanites and named after Canaan’s oldest son, Sidon. Canaan was the 4th son of Ham. Ham is the CURSED son of Noah.(Genesis 9:18-25)BACK TO POST

2 A widow in ancient times was often left destitute. The husband was to care for the wife and once he was dead, if there was no son(s), then there was no one to take care of the widow. We find that this widow’s son is still young, and thus not able to care for his mother. Moreover, we find that destitution is indeed the circumstance for this woman and her son, as she was going to make their last meal and then they were going to wait for death. Thus, this widow in Zarephath was essentially the “cursed of the cursed.”BACK TO POST

Bless God & God Bless,

THE Writer’s Pen,

Angelique

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