Little is Much When God’s In It

*May’s devotional focus for The Round Farmhouse Ministries is all about mothers in the Bible. Check out this blog post to learn more about the widow at Zarephath.”

“For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’” 1 Kings 17:14

How many times during our journey as mothers do we question whether we have what it takes to meet our family’s needs?

• How can I help my child with tackling math word problems?
• How can I help my child learn to control his big emotions?
• How can I inspire my child to grow a thriving faith of her own?
• How can I help my child believe in himself?

“How can I” questions can often fill an entire page in our prayer journals as we seek wisdom for helping our children transition from one season to the next. Our questions, if left unchecked, can grow into questions about our identities as mothers: am I enough of what my children need to thrive?

For the widow at Zarephath, she asked the same kind of question: how can I provide for my son when I don’t have anymore resources? As she measured out her remaining food supplies, she recognized that she only had enough ingredients for one more meal before she and her son would starve to death. Maybe you and I might have an abundance of food in our pantries, so this passage may not seem relevant to us. However, what if we look beyond food scarcity to reflect on other areas we experience a lack of resources: our time, energy, wisdom, family support, childcare, or medical care?

When the prophet Elijah met the widow, the Lord worked through him to change the widow’s life from a life marked with scarcity to one marked with abundance. However, before the widow’s life could be transformed, she had to first be willing to hand over what little ingredients she had left for the Lord to begin working with.

When we surrender what we have, our time, giftings, and energy, to the Lord and follow His leadership in our lives, He blesses us exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever have imagined as mothers. His blessings may not be the methods or timing we might have hoped, however, His plans are always for our children’s long term good and reflect God’s glory through their lives. For the widow, this provision meant she and her son would have an abundance of grain as those around her experienced famine. For us, our abundance might come in the form of supernatural resilience in the midst of utter exhaustion.

Friend, I wonder which areas of motherhood do you connect with the widow’s feelings of hopelessness? I want to encourage both of us to surrender whatever we think we may have to offer our children to the Lord. May the Lord strengthen us to trust that He loves our children infinitely more than we could ever imagine. He alone can empower us with the resources our children need to thrive, just as He did with the widow at Zarephath. As we continue throughout our day, let’s allow Downhere’s song lyrics to ruminate in our hearts, “little is much when God’s in it.”