2009 – Day 152.June 2 – One Step At A Time

2009 – Day 152.June 2 – One Step At A Time

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 17: 4 … 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

My Journal for Today: God needed to teach Elijah a lesson which would one day prove essential for what God had in mind for Elijah; and, as Swindoll points out, Elijah needed to experience and internalize the truth that (Swindoll) “God’s direction includes God’s provision.”

To illustrate this Swindoll tells a word picture story related by Vance Havner about a bunch of cotton farmers in the Deep South years ago who were almost wiped out by an infestation of boll weevils. But being inventive, they began to plant and harvest peanuts, which yielded much more income that had the cotton. If it had not been for the plague of weevils, they would haven not discovered the providence of raising a new crop; so the farmers commissioned a statue to be built with the figure of a boll weevil to remind them how God had taught them a lesson by bringing the weevil to redirect their lives.

And that’s the way our lives can go. It’s easy for us to get in a rut in life; but along comes some disastrous set of circumstances and God gets our attention to the truth that He’s there to project and provide in our lives. Right now we’re going through some of the toughest financial times that most of us have ever experienced; and I don’t know about you; but I’ve certainly learned that I need to remember that our financial well being is in God’s hands. He is the provider; and we can’t rely on the government to bail us out of these times. We must look to God; and that was the lesson which God was teaching Elijah by having him hide where God led him and to wait on God alone for his provision.

What is the boll weevil in your life? Are you finances being challenged in these recent times? Maybe you’ve lost your job. Have you had a critical death in your family, perhaps a spouse? Are YOUR plans not panning out the way YOU had intended? Well, as Swindoll points out today, “When God directs, God provides?” So, if you follow God the way Elijah learned to, you will see that God will show you the way; and He will provide what you need.

My Prayer for Today: Oh, God, You are my Jehovah Jireh. You, and You alone are my provider. Amen