Recent rain and snow have made a significant dent to our drought condition in California. Rivers and dams are filling up, and abundant snow in the mountain is promising a steady flow of water in the months to come.  This phenomenon reminds of what happened in Israel during the reign of King Ahab.  As prophesied by Elijah, there was no rain for three and a half years, causing the land to become parched. But God had prepared a hiding place for Elijah where there was water, Brook Cherith, and sent ravens to bring him bread and meat. But “it happened after a while that the brook dried up . . . .”

As we know God had already prepared another hiding place for Elijah outside of Israel, in Zarephath, Sidon, now in the country of Lebanon. Instead of ravens and a brook, this time God used a poor widow who lived with her son, who were in the brink of starvation. Through her God took care of Elijah, and through Elijah, God took care of this widow and her son before He finally sent rain to Israel.

I like the wordings of Romans 4:18, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.”  Despite his and his wife Sarah’s ages, he believed the promise God had made to him that he would have children of his own and out of him would come a great nation. In the Message, Eugene Peterson translates it, “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said He would do.”

Abraham did not live on faith anytime he liked it; he lived a life of faith. He followed God’s direction and believed His word at any time and God blessed him all the time. By means of a brook, ravens, a widow, and rain God took care of Elijah. By little and by much, God takes care of us. The rain might stop, and the brook might dry up, but God always has other plans, not only B but all the way to Z.

Pastor Paul