Praying Through the Bible #23 | with Daniel Whyte III
TEXT: 1 Kings 17:17-24
We are in a series of messages titled “Praying Through the Bible: A Series on Every Passage and Verse Regarding Prayer in the Bible”. The purpose of this series is to encourage and motivate you to pray to the God of the Bible. We highlighted each of these over 500 verses and passages in the new Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible. So far, we have done 22 messages in this series.
This is message #23 titled “Elijah’s Earnest Prayer.”
In this passage, we find the prophet Elijah during the time when he was staying with the widow of Zarephath. As you might recall, Elijah arrived at Zarephath one day, and he met the widow in the field gathering sticks. The widow told Elijah that she was gathering sticks to make a fire to cook her last little bit of flour and oil for her and her son and after that they were going to die.
But Elijah told her to cook something for him first, and that if she did, the Lord would bless her and she would never run out of flour and oil. So, the widow believed God and fixed a meal for the prophet. God was true to His word, and he miraculously supplied food for the woman and her son from that day on.
The widow and her son were well taken care of. She was blessed by God because she trusted Him and obeyed Him in taking care of the prophet Elijah first. In a time of famine in Israel, she, her son, and the prophet had enough to eat. But those good days were soon overshadowed by a great tragedy. Notice with me…
1. The widow’s calamity. Verse 17 of our passage states: “And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.”
2. Notice with me, the prophet’s prayer. Verse 19 reads, “And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord…”
3. Now, notice with me the Lord’s answer. Verse 22 tells us, “And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” There is a lot of power in that simple phrase — “the Lord heard the voice of Elijah.” It is very powerful because the awesome God of the universe who set the earth in motion, the God who flung the stars against the canopy of blackness, the God who keeps the planets orbiting the sun, the God who looks after billions of people each and every day, stopped to listen to Elijah’s voice when Elijah prayed. And each and every one of us today can take comfort in the knowledge that God listens to our voices when we pray as well.
Gospel Light House of Prayer International 