This year, our church is making our way through 12 steps of apprenticeship to Jesus, based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The first step, our focus in January, is realising that we are powerless to save ourselves.
Between 2015 and 2018, the city of Cape Town in South African was brought to its knees by a 1-in-400 year drought. In the end, people were limited to 50 litres of water a day – with a very real threat of having their water supplies entirely cut off if things didn’t improve. It was a desperate time.
The people in the days of the prophet Elijah faced something similar to that. The rulers of Israel in those days had abandoned God, choosing instead to worship Baal: the Canaanite god of fertility and nature. Baal was also considered to be in charge of storms and the life-giving rains. In response to this, God sent His messenger Elijah to announce to the king of Israel that there would be no more dew or rain until he said so. God was showing the nation the futility of trusting in false gods, and demonstrating who, in fact, was running the world.
And so Israel entered into a long period of drought. Elijah started out living next to a little brook. Not surprisingly, though, that soon dried up: no rain will do that!
So God sent Elijah to go and live in Phoenician territory; in the village of Zarephath near Sidon. There was still water in their wells, it seemed.
But the person in Zarephath God had instructed to feed Elijah wasn’t able to look after herself and her family, let alone Elijah. When Elijah met her, she was gathering a few sticks to make one last cooking fire. She had a handful of flour left, and a small glug of oil. When that was consumed, she would have nothing. She was making a last meal for her and her son – and fully expected the two of them to die of starvation shortly afterwards.
She had nothing, and could do nothing. She was a widow in a culture where women didn’t have many opportunities. She had no cash reserves to go and buy more food. And even if she did, everyone was running short on food; in an agrarian society, droughts can be particularly devastating. She had come to the end of her resources.
Have you ever come to the end of your resources?
A long time ago, I was visiting South Africa for a wedding when my local mobile phone account ran out of credit. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big issue. But I was driving at the time – and found myself in a city I didn’t know without access to Google Maps. I knew, roughly, the direction that I had to travel – but that was it. I didn’t know what to do.
There have been other times when I have found myself running on empty. I have experienced burn-out – sleepless nights and symptoms mimicking a heart attack. It was horrible and debilitating.
I think all of us have been there, in big ways and in small ways. We run into our limits; we realise that we are powerless to change our own circumstances. Those are painful times. They remind us that we are mere mortals; that we cannot guarantee our own future, thriving or success.
But what if we need to face our limitations? What if coming to an end of our own resources points us to the God who loves us and looks after us?
Driving in South Africa, I prayed the whole way home. Somehow, I ended up finding the right place – having driven through, I later learned, one of the most dangerous parts of the city! I am convinced that God was looking after me and guiding me home.
In Zarephath, Elijah invited the desperate widow to put her trust in God. He said to her, ““Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”
What did she have to lose? She did what Elijah asked – and found that although she was powerless, God was anything but. There was always enough flour and oil available; she had no resources, but resources are never a problem for God.
If we are to follow Jesus, we need to realise that we are not the strong ones in the relationship. We are finite creatures, who constantly come face to face with our limitations. We are powerless to guarantee our own lives – but God is anything but powerless.
Our God made the universe and everything in it. He is the one that sustains it all. No matter where we find ourselves, He is the one who can meet our needs. Death is the ultimate evidence of our limitation – the final coming to an end of our resources. But Jesus is the champion over death; the one who defeated it and who offers life to all who trust and follow Him.
We are powerless, but God is certainly not!
You can find the story of Elijah and the Widow in 1 Kings 17
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