The Phoenician Widow & the blinding effects of shame

I've heard it said when life squeezes someone it gives you an opportunity to see what's inside of them. 

1 Kings 17 tells an incredible story, one that shocks me every time I read it, of a lady who gets squeezed. The Lord has brought drought on the land to bring His people back to a true understanding of who He is. During these 3 years, the Lord provided for Elijah through a brook and ravens bringing him food. The brook dried up and the Lord told him to go ask a widow for food. That itself is shocking. The Lord directed him to a women, a widow no less, a non-Israelite widow women to find sustenance. Wow. God can use whoever He'd like to provide for us. 

I would love to know this lady. I would love to hear her story. But my favorite part would be the end, this chapter where God pursues her and peels back the layers of blindness and opens her eyes to what He is really like. 

Elijah meets her as she is gathering sticks to make her last meal for her and her son. She is fully convinced she is going to die after that when Elijah tells her to give him her last meal. Would you ever say yes? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't, but she does and gets to see God miraculously provide for her and her son. 

This sweet, young mom understands Elijah is a "man of God", a prophet but it is an intellectual knowledge and the Lord wants her to know Him on a deeper level so He allows for her life to be squeezed a bit harder. Her son dies. Her only son, after loosing a husband and apparently all of her other family, the only thing she has left is taken from her. As we normally do in hopelessness, she pointed the finger at Elijah exposing her heart covered in shame. "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 

Her shame was keeping her from truly knowing, real-I know you because we do life together know, God. So the Lord pursues and hits her shame head on with the reality that He is the one who gives life rescued from the power of death. He raises her son from the dead. The very first instance of raising the dead recorded in Scripture. Then young widow says, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth."

God allows things in our lives to break through our hard hearts to help us see Him as He truly is. He wants us to know Him, to experientially know, not just intellectually know Him. That we might know Him in the we did life together type of way for this is eternal life.

Reflection Question:
What circumstance in your life has the Lord caused you to think about?
How is He showing Himself more to You as a result of allowing it?
What are thing is someone close to you going through? Will you pray for them, for the Lord to help them see Him as He truly is.

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Potiphar's Wife; Life Unrestrained  
Woman at the Well; Experiencing God's Grace
Rahab; Ms. Courageous meet Prince Charming
Damaris; Counted Among Them 
Eunice and her faithful reward
Midwives; What they have in common with Chick-fil-a and Cake
Miriam; What's the big deal with dishonor?
Dinah; When life is bigger than you imagined
Lot's wife; Dealing with a heart that longs 
Mother of Thunder; When you want for your kids 
Having a Martha Faith in a Mary World