Scarcity / provision

I don’t think there’s anything that rattles me more than realising I don’t have enough to get me through what’s looming in front of me - whether it’s time, money, resources, or energy. That moment before pay day, or when you’re exhausted, or stretched too thin and feeling like there’s nothing left to give.

When we’re in a scarcity mindset - that sense of not having enough - can hold us back from doing what we feel we are called to do. It can keep us from trusting that there will be enough, from believing that God will actually come through. Yet, it’s in these moments that God invites us to trust him.

In 1 Kings 17 the prophet Elijah springs on to the scene. We’re not given any origin story for him, other than he’s a Tishbite from Gilead - but from the moment he’s introduced it’s clear he’s a prophet on a mission. He’s been sent by God to announce that there will be a drought that would affect everyone - even Elijah himself.

God sends him to the Kerithy valley, and tells him to drink from a stream - and that ravens would bring him food - it’s like something from Sleeping Beauty! For a while, Elijah’s basic needs are met.

But then, the stream dries up, and Elijah becomes like everyone else in Israel - desperate for food and water. So God tells him to go to a town called Zarephath, where he says a widow will provide for him. God is leading Elijah, a man in need, to someone who is equally desperate.

When Elijah arrives, he finds the widow gathering sticks to make a fire to prepare one final meal for herself and her son. She has almost nothing left - a handful of flour and a drop of oil.

Elijah asks her for a drink of water, and as she goes to get it he adds ‘and a piece of bread.’ It’s a curious moment - because earlier we’ve been told that God had already told the widow to provide for Elijah - but her response is raw: “I’m gathering sticks to make a last meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.”

It’s hardly surprising - she’s clinging to the last of her food thinking “this is all there is left.”

But Elijah speaks a word of hope. He tells her not to be afraid and promises that God has said that her flour and oil won’t run out until the drought ends. God is asking her to trust, not in what she can see, but in what he can do. It’s a choice - she can hold on to her last meal or open her hand and believe that God will provide.

Remarkably, she chooses to trust. She bakes a small cake for Elijah, and finds out that her flour and oil don’t run out, just as God had promised. Every day, as the drought continues, there is enough. God gives her, as Jesus teaches us to pray, her daily bread.

This story challenges our instinct to hold tightly to what we have when we’re afraid of running out. Both Elijah and the widow had to face their own scarcity. For Elijah, it meant trusting that God would provide through someone who had even less than he did. For the widow, it meant loosening her grip on her last meal and stepping out in faith, believing that God could turn her little into enough. God promises to provide our daily bread. Not a storehouse full, but daily bread. He invites us to believe that there will be enough for today, and tomorrow, and the next day, because he is faithful. As Bonhoeffer wrote in his Letters and Papers from Prison:

“God does not give us everything we want, but He does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself”

Let’s move forward in time to our gospel reading - where we meet another widow. Jesus is in the temple, watching people give their offerings. The wealthy come in, dropping large sums of money, but then, almost unnoticed, comes a power widow with two small coins. Just two lepta - the smallest and least valuable coins at the time - one commentator says it’s the equivalent of 6 minutes of an average daily wage.

But Jesus sees, and calls his disciples.

Mark 12:43–44 (NET 2nd ed.)

“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.”

Just like the widow in 1 Kings, this widow gives her last bit, trusting that God will care for her. This widow doesn’t hold back, even though she has almost nothing. She could have kept one coin for herself, but she trusts God with both. Widows often had little social or economic support, making them especially vulnerable. It’s not the size of the gift, but the heart of trust behind it.

These stories remind us that God specialises in taking the ordinary, the small, and filling it with his power. God took the widow’s “ordinary” flour and oil and sustained her through the drought. He met Elijah’s needs through her small offering. In the same way, God can use even our smallest gifts to accomplish extraordinary things in his kingdom.

Ultimately though, these stories point to Jesus himself. Remember when he fed thousands with just five loaves and two fish? Jesus knew that in God’s kingdom there is always enough. He teaches us in Matthew 7:7

Matthew 7:7 NRSV

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Jesus gave everything, holding nothing back, not even his own life, because he trusted in God’s abundance. He knew that God would raise him, that the kingdom would flourish, and that through him we’d all have enough.

So, here’s the challenge today: where in our lives do we need to let go of that scarcity mindset - to loosen our grips on what little we have? It’s easy to think of giving in terms of money or food, but maybe our “little” is something else. Maybe it’s time, patience, or kindness when we feel drained. Maybe it’s trusting God with something we feel is slipping through our fingers.

Let’s remember that it’s not about the size of our gift - it’s about the heart behind it. God sees what we bring, and he meets us with his own abundance, providing what we need for each day.