On Thursday I was taking part in a learning day with some of our team. We were working through content as part of a Learning Community we belong to. One of the topics on the schedule was generosity, a topic the Lord has taught me a lot about over the years. A topic He really needed to teach me about because I was a little resistant! During the course of the conversation we began to talk about how generosity works with those who have little. As a community we are facing rising energy bills, rent rates, food costs etc. and many people are struggling to make ends meet. How appropriate does it feel to talk about generosity in those moments? Should someone struggling to make ends meet be encouraged to live generously with their money? To tithe what they have? What if that puts them in debt?

I want to be clear here. I believe in the biblical understanding of generosity. It is as important a discipleship issue as prayer, reading the scripture, compassion etc. in my eyes. I am convinced on what Jesus taught and I believe in generosity as both a heart posture and a practical response. I also believe if we are generous that the Lord sees it and is drawn towards it. Tithing and generosity is an issue of trust and I believe we should Him with our more and our little. However I also realise how much it has been misunderstood and misused in the church over the years. What was meant to flow from intimacy and joy became mandatory and lifeless. People have often felt forced to give to a usually already ‘rich’ church while the community around the church struggled. There have been times where money was mismanaged and used in ways that didn’t honour God. All of this makes the topic a tricky one culturally.

As we chatted we began to think of how the Scriptures could help shape our discussions and the story of Elijah and the widow came up. When I turned to my readings today guess what I was reading – Elijah and the widow! In case you haven’t read this story, found in 1 Kings 17 in the Bible let me walk you through my learning here.

It’s a story that comes during a time of drought in the reign of King Ahab of Israel. Elijah is the one who told Ahab the drought would come and he is in hiding in the wilderness as Ahab was angry at His proclamation. The Lord has been feeding him through ravens delivering him food, an old fashioned Uber eats, and he has been drinking water from a brook. However, the water dries up because of the drought and the Lord gives him a new instruction.

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food 1 Kings 17:7-9

At this point the story seems simple. Elijah is hungry and this women will feed him. Simple. However when he approaches the widow, a descriptor that usually describes a person was in poverty, we realise how much poverty they were in. At first when he greets her he asks for a drink of water. While she is on her way to get the water he asks for a piece of bread also. Here is her response to that request.

As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” 1 Kings 17:12

This family are in so much poverty that this will be their last meal. After they eat it they will die because they have nothing else to keep them alive.

How many of us at this point would say; “Don’t worry about it ! Please keep your bread, I’ll be fine” We would be more likely to try and help her find more food, but we certainly wouldn’t ask for any for us.

Not Elijah. The next part makes me cringe.

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 1 Kings 17:13

This women has enough for one last meal for her and her son and then they prepare to die. Elijah asks her to sort him out first and then they can eat.

Not only does he not refuse her last but of food, he asks for it FIRST!!!!!

How un-compassionate is that? Why do this? Why ask that?

One simple reason. God told him to.

I wonder in that moment if Elijah would have been processing the emotions we have as we read the account. But He knew that God had told him to ask her and that she would supply that. He knew God would reward her but even if he had some doubts about that he knew that he needed to be obedient to what God has asked him to do. That is the crux of it all. If God says it we’d better do it. Here is what happened.

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah. 1 Kings 17:15-16

His obedience, couple with her obedience and generosity, meant that a miracle of multiplication occurred. If she had held on to what she had she would have enough for one more meal but because she shared it she had enough for more people everyday. That’s how the Kingdom economy works.

When it comes to generosity I believe the bottom line is now about how much we give God but about how much access and permission we give Him to speak into what we give. God doesn’t need our money, possessions, time etc. He is a limitless God who doesn’t struggle or have a need. He doesn’t require something from us but a He deeply desires something for us. He knows that our stuff, the things we believe are ours have the ability to trap our hearts in a way that we will never find freedom.

The process of generosity, of inviting Him into the conversation prevents those things from having power over us, whether we have many or feel of them.