Yesterday evening, I was praying about hope.
I had been up since 5:30 that morning, had worked an 8-hour day and was about to go work a shift at the crisis phone line. I was feeling so tired... just exhausted, and I didn't feel like I had anything in me to give.
"Lord, give me hope."
"Lord, use me to give hope to other people."
Then I got an idea...
"Lord, crank hope out of me like with the loaves and fishes; even if I don't feel like I have enough hope to sustain myself, I surrender what I have and ask you to multiply that to be above and beyond what is needed to help others around me."
It reminded me of the story of Elijah and the widow in the Old Testament. Do you know that story? You can find it word for word HERE, but I'll give you a quick version of it.
There had been no rain in the land, and everything was dry. The Lord told Elijah to go to a widow and ask her for food and water.
The widow basically told Elijah, "I don't have enough to give you. In fact, I am about to use my last bit of flour and oil to make bread for my son and myself, then we are going to starve to death because we will have no more to eat."
Elijah told her to go ahead and do what she had to do, but asked her to please make him some bread first. If she did that, he told her, she and her son would never run out of food.
Talk about a leap of faith... the woman made food for Elijah, then some for her son and herself. The next day, she did the same... and the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and she NEVER RAN OUT!
Because she surrendered the little she had, which was not enough for herself anyway, God honored her faith and kept her supply up. She would go to the jar of flour and scoop out what she could to make bread for a day for her son, for herself, and for Elijah. The next day, she would go back to the jar and scoop out what she could, and the next day, and so on... and there was ALWAYS FLOUR IN THE JAR FOR HER!
She never had a jar full, but she always had ENOUGH, day after day.
I believe God loves to bless us for honoring Him through our obedience.
God still does this for us today! Just so happens, I was in church this past Sunday digging in my wallet for my tithe.
This past paycheck was a slim check that had to spread a long way. It really was not enough to pay rent and car insurance AND buy food AND gasoline and so on and so on... anyway... I got out the amount for my tithe, and I had just a little money left. I got an idea... and I prayed, "God, what I have is not going to be enough anyway, so I'm just going to give this to You. Pastor Keith says we cannot "out-give" You, so I'm going to trust You to bless me and meet my needs.
I did not tell anyone. I believe in giving quietly so I won't just receive the admiration of people and have that be that; I want to receive what God has promised us for a reward in heaven if we give in secret, which is FAR greater!
And you know what happened? THAT VERY EVENING, someone bought gas for my car. Know how much gas they put in my car? The amount was FIVE DOLLARS GREATER THAN THE EXTRA AMOUNT I HAD GIVEN IN THE OFFERING!
How about that. I challenge you to trust God BEYOND your comfort zone. He will come through!
I've seen a couple of pastors use this image, and it really does get the point across:
Trust God. Because He keeps His promises.
EVERY... SINGLE... TIME.
And, circling back around to where I started this blog...
I have yet to run out of hope.
I know that, as long as I am willing to give whatever I can scrape up to give, God will come around and come through for me, and I will never run out.
The same is true for you.
