85 | When the Jar Looks Empty: Trusting the Living God When You Don't Have Enough (1 Kings 17:8–16)

What do you do when God's promises seem bigger than your resources?

You look at what's in your hands...

and it simply doesn't seem like enough.

Not enough money.

Not enough strength.

Not enough time.

Not enough hope.

In 1 Kings 17, Elijah meets a widow with one final handful of flour and a little oil. She believes she's preparing her last meal.

But God sees something she cannot.

Because faith doesn't begin by counting what's in the jar.

Faith begins by trusting what God has said.

In this message, we'll discover why God's provision often looks different than we expect—and why His faithfulness is greater than our scarcity. 

In This Episode, We'll Discuss:

•  ✅ Why fear counts what's in the jar, but faith counts on God's Word 
•  ✅ How God often provides through the most unexpected people and places 
•  ✅ The difference between visible scarcity and God's unseen sufficiency 
•  ✅ Why God usually gives daily grace instead of instant abundance 
•  ✅ What the widow of Zarephath teaches us about obedient faith 
•  ✅ How this miracle ultimately points us to Jesus, the Bread of Life 

You may not have everything you want.

But if God has spoken...

you have everything you need to take the next step.

🎧 Listen now to Episode 85 | When the Jar Looks Empty: Trusting the Living God When You Don't Have Enough.

RESOURCES
📖 FREE 5-Day Audio Devotional: Renaming Your Story
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✨ For Families: The Devo Kids
Short devotionals, songs, and prayers that help children fall in love with God's Word. Watch on YouTube | Free printable journal pages at thedevokids.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever noticed how quickly fear grows when what you have doesn't seem like enough? Most of us know what it's like to say I don't have enough, not enough money, not enough time, not enough strength, not enough wisdom, not enough patience, not enough hope for what we're facing. Sooner or later, every one of us finds ourselves standing in front of something that feels bigger than our resources. We look at what's in our hands, and then we look at what is in front of us and the two simply don't match. And somewhere in that moment a question quietly begins to surface. If God has promised to take care of me, why does what I have seem so small compared to what he's asking me to face? That's the question waiting for us in today's passage. Last week we watched the living God teach Elijah to trust him beside a drying brook. Today the lesson continues, only this time God sends Elijah to a widow whose cupboard is almost empty, whose hope is almost gone, and whose future seems to be measured by one last handful of flour and a little oil. Because every follower of Christ must eventually learn this lesson. God's sufficiency is greater than our scarcity. So if you've been wondering whether what you have is enough, this message is for you. Let's discover what the living God has to say. Let's get into it. Welcome to Sunday Renewal, the podcast designed to help you revive your faith, restore your hope, and discover the deep, unshakable peace that comes from walking daily with God. I'm Ernest Benjamin, a husband, father, entrepreneur, and someone who spent nearly two decades teaching and preaching God's word to people just like you. People who want more than just feel-good messages. They want truth, biblical truth that meets them in their real lives and empowers them to live boldly for Christ. I believe God's word isn't just inspiring, it's life-changing. And each week we'll explore scripture in a way that's practical, relevant, and deeply personal so you can apply it to your life right now and take your faith to the next level. So let's dive into today's episode and take the next step toward renewal together. If you have your Bible, turn with me to first Kings chapter seventeen. We'll begin reading in verse number eight and conclude in verse sixteen. Hear the word of God. Then the word of the Lord came to him. Arise, go to Zareph, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zaraph, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks, and he called to her and said, Bring me a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar, and a little oil in a jug, and now 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. And Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it, and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did as Elijah said, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. Did you notice the tension? God said to Elijah, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So naturally we expect Elijah to arrive and find a widow who has more than enough to provide exactly as God said. Instead, he finds a widow gathering sticks, preparing what she believes will be her final meal. If we're honest, nothing about this looks like God's provision. It looks as though God's promise and this widow's circumstances are telling two completely different stories. And that's exactly where this passage meets every one of us. Because sooner or later we all find ourselves standing between what God has said and what we can see. Which voice will we believe? Will we trust what our circumstances appear to be saying or will we trust what God has already said? That's the tension the living God places before us today. So let's stay with the text and discover how the living God teaches Elijah, this widow and us that fear counts what's in the jar, but faith counts on what God has said. Look again at verses eight and nine. Then the word of the Lord came to him Elijah, Arise, go to Zareph, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold I have commanded a widow there to feed you. Notice that Elijah receives a word from the Lord before he receives an explanation. Arise, go, dwell there. God does not unfold the entire plan. He simply tells Elijah the next step. And that next step is surprising. God sends Elijah to Zareph, a town belonging to Sidon. If you've been reading carefully, that detail should make you pause. First Kings chapter sixteen tells us that Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of the Sidonians. Through that marriage Ahab embraced the worship of Baal and led Israel deeper into idolatry than any king before him. The very false worship Elijah has been confronting came from this region. Yet now the living God sends his prophet into what we might call Baal's or Baal's homeland. Why? Because God is about to demonstrate something his people desperately need to remember. His authority does not stop at Israel's border. The earth belongs to him. The rain answers to him. The famine answers to him. Sidon is not beyond his reach, and Zaraph is not outside his providence. But the destination is not the only surprise. God says Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. A widow among the most socially and economically vulnerable people in the ancient world. Someone we would ordinarily expect to receive provision, not become the means of providing it. Yet God says I have commanded her. That word should sound familiar. Earlier God said in chapter seventeen, he told Elijah, I have commanded the ravens to feed you. Now he says I have commanded a widow to feed you. Same God, same commanding authority, another unexpected instrument of his provision. The text never says the widow has already received an audible message from God. In fact, when Elijah meets her, she is not waiting for him. She does not greet him by name. She does not say I've been expecting you. But before Elijah ever leaves Kirith, God declares that he is already gone before him. Before Elijah takes one step toward Zareph, God is already at work in Zareph. Before Elijah meets the widow, God has already prepared the encounter. Before Elijah obeys, God's providence is already moving. That is the quiet confidence beneath every act of biblical obedience. When God sends you, listen to me, he is already gone before you. That does not mean he will explain everything before you move. It does not mean the road will be easy. It does not mean his provision will appear in the form you expected or in the form you want it to. It means your obedience to God never takes you into a place where God is absent. Your obedience to God never takes you into a place where God is surprised or unprepared. You may not know what is waiting for you, but God does. You may not see how His word will be fulfilled, but He is already accounted for what you cannot see. Now look at Elijah's response in verse ten. So he arose and went to Zarephath. That is all the text tells us. God said Arise and go and guess what Elijah did? Elijah arose and went. There is no recorded argument, no hesitation, no demand for additional details, no request to see the provision before beginning the journey. God spoke, Elijah obeyed. Elijah obeys the word he has received even though he cannot yet see how that word will be fulfilled. And here is where the passage begins speaking directly to us. Many of us want God to hand us the entire map before we'll take the first step. We want every question answered, every risk removed, every resource visible, every outcome guaranteed, then we tell ourselves we will obey. But that is not how God ordinarily forms his people. Faith does not require us to know everything God knows. Faith requires us to act upon what God has said. Elijah does not have the entire map, but he has the word of the Lord, and the word of the Lord is enough to take the next step. Notice Elijah is not following a feeling. He is not chasing an impression. He is responding to the clear word of God. Biblical faith is never believing without a word from God. It is obeying the word God has given without demanding the knowledge he has withheld. So Elijah travels to Zarephath, and when he reaches the gate of the city, the text says Behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. Elijah arrives at the place God named and there is a widow, exactly the town God named, exactly the kind of person God had appointed. God's word has brought Elijah to the right place. God's providence has arranged the encounter. Everything is unfolding exactly according to God's word. But there is one problem. The widow does not look like someone who has more than enough to feed the prophet. She is gathering sticks, and in the next verses we will discover she believes she has only enough food for one final meal before she and her son die. God's word has already proven true. The widow is there, but God's provision is still hidden beneath the appearance of scarcity. The person God appointed as the means of provision appears to have nothing to provide. And that raises the question we must now answer. Will we trust what God has said when what we see appears to say something completely different? Look at verses ten and eleven. And he called to her and said, Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. At first the request seemed simple. Bring me a little water. Elijah has travelled a long distance, he is thirsty, and even in the middle of a drought the widow appears willing to share what she has. The text says that she begins moving to get it. But while she is going, Elijah calls after her, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And suddenly the request touches the very place where her life is falling apart. Water she can bring. But you see bread is another matter. Listen to her answer in verse twelve. As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a jar and a little oil and a jug. And now 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. Notice how she begins As the Lord your God lives. That is a remarkable statement. This is a Gentile woman living in Sidon, one of the great centers of Baal worship. Yet when she speaks to Elijah, she speaks of the Lord, the God of Israel as the living God. But notice her wording. She does not say my God, she says your God. The widow recognizes that Elijah belongs to the God of Israel. She acknowledges Yahweh as living, but the text does not give us her complete spiritual history. It does not tell us how she came to know about the Lord. It does not tell us what she may have heard, what she may have witnessed, or how God may already have been working in her heart before Elijah arrived. We should be very careful not to say more than the scripture says. What the text does tell us is that she recognizes Elijah's God as the living God, and she is about to receive a word from that God through his prophet. But first she tells Elijah the truth about her condition. I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour, a little oil, a couple of sticks, one final meal, and then that's a wrap. Then death. I want you to hear the honesty in her words. She is not inventing an excuse. She is not exaggerating her circumstances. She is not being dramatic. She is describing what she believes to be the end. The drought has withheld the rain. The famine is what the drought has produced. There is no harvest. There is almost no food, and what remains in that jar is all that stands between her family and starvation.

unknown 21:59

A hand.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

a handful of flour, a little oil, enough for one small meal shared between a mother and her boy. And after that she sees no future. If you were with us previously, you have heard this pattern before, not with the same person, not in the same place, not through the same means, but it is the same pattern. Elijah's brook flowed, and then it dried up. The widow's jar once held flour, and now it has emptied down to a handful. Both Elijah and the widow have watched visible resources diminish. Both have reached a place where what once sustained them appears almost gone, and both are being called to trust the word of God before they can see how God will provide. But Elijah is not standing over this widow as someone who has graduated from the lesson. He stands beside her as a fellow learner. His presence in Zaraph proves that he is trusting and obeying the same God he is now calling her to trust and obey. And God in his providence brings two people together who are both learning to trust him though from opposite sides of the encounter. One has been sent to speak the promise, the other is being called to receive it. Now look carefully at the first words Elijah speaks after hearing her situation thirteen and Elijah said to her Do not fear. Before he speaks about the flower, before he speaks about the oil, before he asks her to place what remains into his hands, God addresses her fear through his prophet because Elijah is about to make a request that will appear to place everything she has left at risk. He is going to ask her to take flowers she intended for her son and prepare something for him first. That request could awaken deep fear the fear of losing what little remains the fear of making the wrong decision. The fear of causing her son to suffer because she trusted the word of a man she had never seen before the fear that obedience might bring harm rather than provision. So before God calls her to act he speaks to the fear that could keep her from acting do not fear. God addresses her fear before flower. He addresses what is happening in her heart before asking for what is held in her hand. And notice that do not fear is not an invitation to deny reality. God is not asking her to pretend the famine is over. He is not asking her to imagine that the jar is full. He is not asking her to call abundance what is plainly scarcity. The handful of flour is real. The little oil is real. Her son's hunger is real the threat of death is real. Faith does not require her to deny what she can see. Faith calls her to let God's word have the final say over what her eyes can see. That is why Elijah does not stop with the words do not fear he gives her a promise. Verse thirteen continues Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me and afterward make something for yourself and your son. And then comes the ground of the command for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day the Lord sends rain upon the earth. There it is Thus says the Lord Elijah is not asking her to trust his optimism. He is not asking her to admire his confidence. He is not asking her to gamble her final meal on a religious stranger's intuition. He brings her a word from the living God, the God who governs the rain, the God who rules over the famine, the God whose authority reaches into Zidon, the God who sent Elijah to Zaraph. The God who told Elijah there would be a widow there. That God now speaks a promise over her emptying jar. The jar of flour shall not be spent the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. The widow has one interpretation of her circumstances there is only enough for one final meal and then we will die. But God but God speaks another word over the same circumstances The jar shall not be spent the jug shall not run dry The conflict in this moment is not merely between abundance and scarcity it is between two interpretations of the same reality. One interpretation is based entirely on what can be measured a handful of flour, a little oil, a couple of sticks the other interpretation is grounded in what God has said. Her circumstances speak one word God speaks another and now the widow must decide which voice will govern her response fear counts what is in the jar. Faith counts on what God has said. Then Elijah gives the command that makes the cost of faith unmistakable He says but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me and afterward make something for yourself and your son First That word carries the weight of the entire test Elijah is not merely asking her to believe the promise privately He is calling her to act as though the promise of God is true. Make the cake, bring it to me, then prepare something for yourself and your son. Now at first hearing that request can sound selfish how can Elijah ask a starving mother to feed him before she feeds her child? But Elijah is not exploiting her desperation. God is inviting her through his prophet to entrust what remains to the one the God who has spoken. Elijah does not ask her to give without a promise the command is grounded in the declaration for thus says the Lord The widow is not being asked to give her final meal to sustain Elijah while she and her son die, no ma'am, no sir. She is being called to act upon God's word that there will still be flour after she obeys. There will still be oil after she obeys. There will still be provision after she places what remains in God's hands. Her obedience will not make God's promise true. Her obedience will not create the provision. The promise comes from God. The power belongs to God but the provision must be received through obedient faith. Had she rejected the word she would not have participated in the provision promised through it. Faith must act upon what God has said. Not because obedience earns the promise, but because obedient faith is how we receive and enter into what God has promised. She must entrust what she can measure to the God who always keeps his word. That is the heart of this moment Obedient faith entrusts what remains to the God who has spoken. And now the text turns toward us because the widow is not the only person who has ever wondered whether what remains will be enough. She is not the only person who has watched resources diminish. She is not the only person who has looked at tomorrow's need and today's supply and concluded I do not have enough. So let me ask you directly has your emptying jar become louder than God's promise? What is your jar? Is it your finances? The account balance moving in the wrong direction while the bills continue to arrive? Is it your energy? The tiredness that sleep does not seem to fix any more is it your marriage a relationship into which you have poured so much yet the distance between you continues to grow? Is it your health a body that no longer does what it once did in a diagnosis that has changed the way you imagine tomorrow is it your parenting you want to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord you want to see them increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. You pray for them you teach them you try to the very best of your ability to model the gospel before them. But sometimes Lord have mercy sometimes you look at who you are what you know what you have and you feel woefully inadequate for the calling God has placed in your hands you wonder Lord am I enough do I have enough what is your emptying jug is it your hope that quiet fear that the season you are in may never change and that what remains in you will not be enough to endure it. Every one of us eventually faces an emptying jar a place where visible resources diminish a place where we cannot manufacture enough a place where obedience feels costly a place where doing what God has said appears to place something precious at risk. And that is where fear becomes very loud. Fear listens to the jar faith listens to the word of God. Fear counts what's in your hand faith counts on what God has said. The issue is not whether your scarcity is real it is the scarcity is real. The bills are real the exhaustion is real. The relational distance is real the diagnosis is real the responsibility of raising your children is real. The distance between where you are and where you thought you would be is real. The circumstances are what they are but listen to me your visible resources are not the final measure of God's sufficiency. And God's invitation is not pretend the jar is full. His invitation is trust the word I have spoken over your jar that is emptying. Do not fear not because obedience will never cost you not because faith removes every obstacle and every risk. Not because God always restores what we surrender in the same form in which we surrendered it. Do not fear because the God who calls us to obey is faithful. Do not fear because his character is trustworthy. Do not fear because his word is more reliable than our calculations do not fear because what appears to be in our detriment is never beyond his sovereign cares at a point of decision. She has heard the promise but she has not yet seen the provision The flour has not multiplied the oil has not increased. Nothing in the jar has visibly changed. She still has only a handful of flour she still has only a little oil she still holds the sticks intended for what she believed would be her final meal. Nothing has changed except that God has spoken. Now the question is will she believe him? Will she count what is in the jar or will she count on what God has said she stands there holding what little remains having heard the promise but not yet having seen the provision look at verse fifteen and she went and did as Elijah said that sentence is brief but do not move past it too quickly because between verse fourteen and verse fifteen stands one of the most difficult steps of faith recorded in this passage. God has spoken through Elijah the promise has been given but the flower has not yet multiplied the oil has not yet increased. There is no visible evidence that anything will be different after she obeys. All she has is the word of the living God and she acts upon it. She went and did as Elijah said she takes the flour she can measure the oil she can see the meal she had reserved for herself and her son and she responds in obedient faith this is not careless optimism this is not blind faith. This is not a desperate woman gambling on religious possibilities. She has received a word from God and faith responds to what God has said. She does not wait for the jar to fill before she obeys. She obeys while the jar still looks empty. She does not wait for the oil to increase before she acts. She acts while the oil is still running low. She does not receive the evidence and then trust the promise. She trusts the promise and then experiences the evidence of God's faithfulness. That is the order of the text. God speaks, she believes, she obeys, and God provides. She responds in obedient faith, not because her obedience creates God's provision, but because she trusts the God who has spoken. Verse fifteen continues and she and he and her household ate for many days. She believed she was preparing the final meal of her life. God was preparing to sustain her household for many days. She thought the story was almost over. God had already written provision into the days ahead. She saw one meal and then death. God saw many meals and continued life. The same flower she believed would mark the end of her story became the place where God displayed his faithfulness day after day. And notice who is included in the provision she and he and her household ate for many days. The provision is not merely for Elijah. The widow eats, her son eats, Elijah eats, her household eats. God's provision reaches everyone whom his promise name. The widow feared that obedience would harm her family. Instead, God has used her obedience as the means through which her family experienced his sustaining care. What looked like surrendering the little she had became the pathway through which she received what only God could give. But we must also notice the nature of the miracle. God does not give her a warehouse filled with flour. He does not give her a field of wheat in the middle of the famine. He does not cause barrels of oil to appear at the city gate. The miracle is quieter than that. Verse sixteen says the jar of flour was not spent. Neither did the jug of oil become empty. The text does not say the jar overflowed. It says the jar was not spent. The text does not say the jug became full. It says the jug did not become empty. That distinction matters. God did not necessarily give her visible abundance. Listen to me. He did not necessarily give her visible abundance. He gave her daily sufficiency. Each time she reached into the jar there was flour. Each time she poured from the jug there was oil, not necessarily enough to make her feel permanently secure, but enough for that day. Enough for that meal. Enough for the next act of obedience. God did not remove her dependence. He sustained her within it. The widow could not look at an overflowing storehouse and conclude I no longer need to trust God. She had to return to the same jar. She had to lift the same jug. She had to depend upon the same promise day after day, meal after meal, handful after handful. God's provision was not merely a single dramatic intervention. It was a repeated demonstration of His faithfulness. Every meal quietly declared the same truth. The living God has kept his word again. Every handful of flour declared the living God is still faithful. Every drop of oil testified his promise has not failed. She may not have known how provision would be present the next morning, but every morning she discovered that God's faithfulness had arrived before she did. This is the kind of provision many of us struggle to recognize. We want God to fill the storehouse. God often gives just enough for today. We want him to eliminate the need for continued trust. God often provides in a way that teaches us to trust him again tomorrow. We want a level of provision that allows us to feel independent. God gives sustaining grace that keeps us dependent upon Him. And sometimes we miss the blessing because the jar is not overflowing. We assume that if God were truly providing there would be more, more money, more strength, more certainty, more opportunity, more margin, more visible evidence that everything will be alright. But the miracle in Zaraph was not that the widow possessed everything she could ever need at once. The miracle was that what God supplied never failed to meet the need he had promised to sustain. The jar was not spent. The jug did not become empty. There was always enough. Not always enough to answer every question. Not enough to remove every uncertainty. Not enough to end the famine immediately, but enough to prove that God was faithful. And perhaps that is the word some of us need most today. You have been looking for an overflowing jar while overlooking the flower God has continued to place there. You have been waiting for a dramatic breakthrough while God has been sustaining you quietly, faithfully one day at a time. You prayed for strength to carry the entire season. God gave you strength to make it through today. You prayed for every answer. God gave you enough light to take the next step. You prayed for the whole burden to be removed. God gave you grace that kept the burden from destroying you. You prayed for an abundant reserve. God gave you daily bread. And daily bread is still evidence of God's faithful care. The fact that you are still standing may be evidence of God's faithfulness. The fact that you still have enough faith to pray may be evidence of God's faithfulness. The fact that grief did not consume you, that exhaustion did not completely overcome you, that disappointment did not finally turn your heart away from God may be evidence that the jar has not been spent and the jug has not become empty. That does not mean your hardship is small. It does not mean your losses are imaginary. It does not mean faith requires you to pretend that survival feels like abundance. It means the living God has been faithful to sustain you even where he has not yet chosen to remove the famine. That is what he does with this widow. He does not immediately send the rain. He does not immediately end the national crisis. He does not transport her family out of Sidon. He sustains them in the middle of the famine. Sometimes God changes the circumstances. Sometimes God sustains his people while the circumstances remain the same. Both are expressions of his faithfulness. The rain will eventually come, but until the rain comes, the flower remains. Until the rain comes the oil remains. Until the fuller answer arrives, God supplies what is necessary for the present day. And the duration of this promise matters. Elijah had said The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth. God's provision would last as long as the need lasted. The promise would not expire one day too early. The flower would not fail before the rain return. The oil would not disappear before the drought ended. God had already measured the length of the famine, and he had already committed himself to sustain them through it. The widow did not know how long the famine would last, but guess who did know? God did. She could not see the day when rain would come, but guess who could? God could. And the God who knew the length of the trial also knew the measure of grace required to carry them through it. And listen to me, that is still true. You may not know how long this season will last. You may not know when the rain will come. You may not know when the door will open, when the body will heal, when the relationship will change, when the grief will loosen its grip, when the answer will arrive. But your inability to see the end does not mean God has lost sight of it. The God who knows the length of the famine knows how to sustain you until the rain comes. His grace will not expire before your need does. His mercy will not run out halfway through the season. His faithfulness will not abandon you before his purpose is complete. The jar will not be spent before the rain comes. The jug will not become empty before God's appointed time. And then verse sixteen gives us the theological explanation for everything that happened according to the word of the Lord that He spoke by Elijah. That is the center of the miracle. The flower remained according to the word of the Lord. The oil continued according to the word of the Lord. The household ate according to the word of the Lord. The widow was sustained according to the word of the Lord. The miracle did not happen because Elijah was impressive. It did not happen because the widow's faith was flawless. It did not happen because the jar contained some kind of hidden potential. It happened because the living God always keeps his word. Everything rest upon his faithfulness. We have walked with Elijah from Kirith to Zaraph. We have watched God call both prophet and widow to trust him. And now we see why neither of them were ever trusting in vain. The living God always proves faithful to his word, not always by giving us abundance, not always by removing the famine immediately, not always by showing us how everything will work out in advance, but by supplying what He has promised for as long as He has promised, according to the word He has spoken. The widow thought she was preparing her final meal, but the living God had the final word. She said one meal and then we die. God said The jar shall not be spent. She saw an ending. God spoke sustaining grace. She counted what remained. God remained faithful to what he had promised, and day after day, meal after meal, the jar testified that God's word could be trusted. The flour did not run out. The oil did not fail. The household ate. The promise held because the living God has spoken. As wonderful as this miracle is, it was never meant to be the final word. The living God sustained this widow and her household through the famine, day after day, meal after meal. He proved himself faithful. But eventually the famine ended. The jar was no longer needed. The oil was no longer needed. Years later Elijah died. The widow died. Her son died. Because this miracle, remarkable as it was, could only preserve physical life for a time. It could never conquer death itself. That is why this miracle points us beyond itself. The widow needed bread to live another day, but every one of us has a deeper need than bread can satisfy. Our greatest need is not simply that our resources run low. Our greatest need is that sin has separated us from the God who is life. Left to ourselves we cannot rescue ourselves. We cannot overcome our sin. We cannot conquer death. What we need is not merely more provision. We need a savior. And that is exactly what the living God has given. When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son. common into this world. Jesus did not simply come to tell us about life, he came to give life. He will later say I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. The widow received bread that sustained her life for a season. In Christ God gives the bread of life who gives eternal life. Jesus did not merely bring God's provision, he is God's provision. At the cross Jesus willingly bore our sin. He endured the judgment we deserve. He laid down his life so that sinners like us might be forgiven and reconciled to God. Then on the third day the living God raised his son from the dead. Death did not have the final word. The grave did not have the final word. Sin did not have the final word. The living God had the final word. And because Christ lives everyone who repents of their sins and trust in him receives life that death itself cannot take away. The widow trusted God's promise and discovered that God was faithful. We look to Christ and we see the greatest demonstration that God always keeps his word. The empty tomb is God's everlasting declaration that every promise he has made in his son is true. So let me ask you one final question What are you trusting today? Are you trusting what remains in your jar, your abilities, your plans, your strength, your goodness, your religion or have you entrusted yourself to Jesus Christ? Some of you have been trying to survive on resources that were never meant to save you. Your morality cannot save you your sincerity cannot save you. Your effort cannot save you only Christ can save you and for those who already belong to him perhaps your jar feels as though it is emptying once again. Remember what this passage has taught us the living God goes before his people. The living God calls his people to trust his word and the living God proves himself faithful day after day after day. The God who sustained the widow in Zarep is the God who has secured your salvation through his Son. If he did not spare his son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also faithfully supply everything necessary to accomplish his purposes in your life so whether today you need salvation or whether today you simply need strength to trust him one more day the invitation is the same Come to Christ trust his word and trust what remains into his faithful hands because our confidence has never rested in the size of our jar. Our confidence rests in the faithfulness of our living God let's pray Father thank you for being the living God the God who speaks the God who sees the God who provides the God who keeps every promise you have ever made. Forgive us for trusting what we can see more than what you have spoken. Forgive us for allowing fear to speak louder than your word. Teach us to entrust what remains into your faithful hands. Thank you for every evidence of your sustaining grace. Thank you for every reminder that you have never failed your people. Most of all thank you for giving us your Son. Thank you that when we could not save ourselves you provided the Savior we desperately needed. Thank you that Jesus bore our sin, died in our place and rose again in victory. Thank you that because He lives all who trust in him have everlasting life. For those who have never trusted Christ draw them to him today. Grant them repentance and faith for those who are weary strengthen them. For those who are fearful remind them that you are faithful. For those whose jars seem to be emptying help them remember that your grace will never fail before their need does. May we leave here trusting your word more than our fears, your promises more than our circumstances and your Son above everything else. We ask all of this in the strong, saving and living name of Jesus Christ Amen Thank you for spending this time with me on Sunday renewal my prayer is that today's episode encouraged your heart strengthened your faith and reminded you that God is still at work redeeming, restoring and shaping your story for his purpose. If this message spoke to you don't keep it to yourself share it with someone in your life a friend a family member or a coworker because God often uses one simple conversation to bring renewal to someone else's journey. And if you have a moment leaving a review on Apple Podcasts truly helps others discover messages of hope and faith when they need them most before you go I want to invite you into a deeper journey. I've created a free five-day devotional called Renaming Your Story from pain to purpose to legacy. In just 10 minutes a day it's designed to help you walk through healing old wounds, breaking false labels, is stepping into the fruitfulness and legacy God intends. If there's someone you love who needs encouragement, healing or direction or if this journey is for you this resource is available now. Just click the link in the show notes to get started. Remember this God is present your past does not define you and your story is still in motion. Until next time walk by faith stay open to God and trust him with the next step. God bless you