Question for the Group:
How does your measure of faith compare to the Widow of Zarephath?

• When it comes to being obedient to feeding a perfect stranger
• When trying to overcome obstacles, i.e., starvation and then face another devastation, i.e., the possible death of a child.

Personal Challenge:
Where does this faith (or the strength to exhibit this faith) come from?

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” (Greek hypostasis, meaning “assurance”)
Hebrews 11:1

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...”
Hebrews 12:2

Question for the Group:
Share with the group or think of an experience you have had regarding your faith being tested.

Personal Challenge:
Are we able to surrender the situation we are facing or have faced and trust the Lord to bring forth His glory even if we cannot comprehend why something may be occurring or has occurred?

In John 9:3 Jesus responds to the crowd when asked a similar question, if it was the sin of his parents or his own that he was born blind. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” The Lord had a purpose in the way the man was brought into the world and the reason he manifested a healing when he did.

Further in John 11:4, Jesus refers to the raising Lazarus from the dead for God’s glory. “When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” This then being another reason given that the Lord can console us when we are faced with troubling circumstances. That it is for His Glory.

Question for the Group:
What is our reaction when we are faced with a decision/circumstance that we have no say in or any control over? Where do we turn?

• fear of the terrorism threats
• fear of the outcome of our medical tests
• fear of our marriage dissolving
• fear of losing a spouse, family member or dear friend. (In the widow’s case, her fear becoming a reality, the death of her son (1 Kings 17:17)

Personal Challenge:
Where do you find yourself?

“Cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you.”
1 Peter 5:7

Read the following together as the group:

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”
Psalm 34: 1-8

v.7: the word fear is from the Hebrew word, yare, from fearing; mor. reverent: -afraid, fear (-ful)

The Lord was gracious to the widow and healed her son. And because of this, she acknowledged the power that Elijah displayed “...And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.”
1 Kings 17:24

The response of the widow sums what we all have been searching for and find rest when we find the Truth.

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