When I started pulling out warmer clothes for the kids this
fall I realized there was a big need. Instead of freaking out about it I just
started praying, knowing God would meet that need. Not long after I started
praying a friend at church pulled me aside to tell me she had some clothes for
one of my boys. Then a couple days later
another friend called and asked to take the girls shopping.
As I read 1 Kings 17, Elijah got his water from the brook
and was fed by the ravens. Later, he was
supplied food by a widow whose jar of oil never ran dry. Elijah could have been freaking out about the
brook drying up, focus on the circumstances and the “what’s next”, but instead I
think Elijah, because he trusted in his God, knew something new was coming…even
though he had no idea what. He instead waited remembering who his God was.
There have been many ravens and jars in my life and in those
around me. My prayer is that I would
never miss them because I am so focused on the brook drying up.
Here are just a couple of those ravens and jars:
In a really hard season of my life I met a women in an airport
at 4 o’clock in the morning. She sat
next to me and began talking. (I want to
note here that I am not one to unload my troubles on complete strangers.) She asked me a few questions and the next
thing I knew from her mouth my troubles were spilling. I had said nothing, but
she knew. She encouraged me and prayed for me.
It turned out we didn’t live far from each other so she invited me to
join her for lunch sometime. Two months later I could not get this women out of
my mind. I called her and we had lunch. There she shared with me that she had
been praying for me the last 2 months and that God had put it on her heart to help
provide for my family, for the next year, so she offered me a job. This woman
has become a dear, dear friend of mine. God used her and her family over that
year and continues to use them to bless, encourage and love my family and me.
Right before Christmas someone had put a jar of money on the
front porch when my husband had been out of work for 5 months.
That Christmas Eve we got home from church and Santa had
visited our home early with more presents than my kids have ever received.
One night my husband and I were talking and the doorbell
rang. There was a gift bag on the front
porch. In that gift bag there was the
exact amount of money we needed to pay for car problems and a class I was
taking.
A friend this year wasn’t sure how she was going to buy
presents for her older children or a nice Christmas dinner when she received an
unexpected gift that paid for both.
Ravens and jars. I could go on and on with stories from my
life and others. God is good. He blesses and provides, not always in the way we
think or in our time, but He does. I want to be a woman who waits for God, for
His timing. I don’t want to always be trying
to run ahead of Him because I am focused on the brook drying up in front of me.
There is an unyielding focus that I long
for. A mind and heart that holds so
tightly to the character of my God that I cannot be moved until He says move.
“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for
him.” (Isaiah 64:4 NIV)
I invite you to encourage another mom this week with one of
your own ravens and jars stories. If you want, take a few extra minutes out of
your day to add your story to the comments below.
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