VICTORY: CONVICTION

We continue our series on Victory.  We hope that the power of resurrection that raised Jesus from the death is resurrecting you spirit and filling you with a sense of God’s victory for you!  This week, we turn to 1 Kings 17:9-16.  The prophet Elijah is mentioned for the first time in the scriptures.  The Word of the Lord has proclaimed through him a drought on the land of Israel.  As you can imagine, he is not a popular person, and he goes into hiding.  It is always easier to “kill the messenger” than to actually resolve the spiritual decline.  God was calling his people to repentance.  God sends Elijah to a creek where the crows feed him morning and night.  However, due to the drought, the creek dries up, and God sends him to a Gentile country and a poor widow who is gathering wood to make one last desperate meal for her and her son.  She thought this was the end, but God had a different plan!  In the sermon, Conviction, we explore the power of conviction and trust in this moment.  In our world filled with confusion, uncertainty, and turmoil, this woman’s trust is a victorious moment of faith that will save her and her family!  We can discount it and say, “This doesn’t apply to us!” Or we can pause and consider how God is giving us opportunities to trust him for our daily bread and our lives!  We pray that you will be renewed by the power of God as you read 1 Kings 17:9-16.

1 Kings 17: 9-16: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread– only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it– and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.'” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah. (NIV)