God Provides BUT You Just Had to Be There to Get it!

Mike Hosey, An Elder

When Abram was living his sweet and comfortable life in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, God came to him and told him to leave that land.  “Go to a place I will show you,” God told him.  He provided no details (Genesis 12:1). He only told him to leave his comfortable “here” and go to an unknown “there.” Abram simply had to take it on faith that God would provide for him. In fact, if he didn’t have that faith – if he had been so comfortable that he was numb to that faith -- he wouldn’t have acted.  Thankfully he did act, and God certainly provided for him. Eventually, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, and his children became a great nation – a nation that preserved God’s word for us, and was later used to give us that word in the person of Jesus.

God worked in a similar way in 1 Kings 17:1-24. It is there that Elijah the prophet tells the evil King Ahab that there will be no rain in the land until Elijah declares it to be so. God then told Elijah to go to the Cherith brook where he could drink from the brook during the drought, and where the ravens would bring him food. Elijah obeyed. And he experienced God’s provision as he was fed and watered during the drought.  But because there was no rain in the land the brook dried up. Elijah had to move. God told him to leave his “here” and go to the “there” of the small coastal town of Zarapheth.  “I have commanded a widow there to feed you,” God told him (1 Kings 17:9).  Once again he obeyed. But when he got there he found a hungry widow and her child. She fully expected to die of hunger. She didn’t even have enough flour or oil to make a final meal. She certainly didn’t have enough to feed Elijah.  But Elijah commanded her to make a meal from the flour. He had seen the provision of God already. He told her that her small amount of oil and flour would not run out until it once again rained in the land. She obeyed, and they ate for many days.

What if Elijah had not gone to the brook at Cherith? What if when he got to the brook he had become too comfortable? What if the brook had not dried up? If he had been so comfortable in his “here” at Cherith, what would have happened to the widow at Zarapheth?   

What about you? Are you so comfortable in your “here” that you won’t be able to move “there” if God requires it? . . . Because you just have to be "there" to get His provision.