“Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” (1 Kings 17:9). If ever there was a person who did not have the time, energy, or financial, emotional, or mental resources to look beyond their immediate privations and impending doom to offer up what little they had to sustain a prophet of the Lord, the widowed mother of Zarephath was one such person. We will all almost certainly find good and justifiable reasons to withhold our support and sustaining influence for the Prophet and other servants of the Lord. Maybe we are facing a weekend absolutely filled to bursting with important errands and projects that we have been putting off for far too long and which we don’t really have the time or the energy to tackle anyway and amidst all of this our priesthood leader asks us to leave all of that behind and help out with some service project. Maybe we were laid off months ago and have been unemployed ever since and have devoured our savings and maxed out our credit cards and still can’t find a job and then a Deacon knocks on our door and asks if we have any fast offerings. Maybe we are fighting a losing battle with cancer and our Bishop asks us to accompany him to give someone else who is sick a blessing. The widow of Zarephath had enough flour and oil for one small morsel of bread and she chose to give everything that she had to sustain the prophet. And the Lord continued to bless her with more flour and more oil partly because she had shown faith and obedience but also so that she could continue to sustain the prophet. When we commit to sustaining the prophet, the Lord will bless us with at least enough to continue to sustain the prophet and most likely more than enough to take care of our own needs as well. That first moment of fear and doubt when we are asked to give up our very last scraps to sustain the prophet and leave nothing for ourselves is hard, but as we continue to sustain the prophet the Lord will in turn continue to sustain us.
