TOPIC: More Than The Bargain
TEXT: 1 Kings 17:17-24
17. 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.
And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
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, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother; and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
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.
KEY VERSE:
“And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.” – (1 Kings 17:23)
MESSAGE:
There is something amazing about the principle of Sowing and Reaping; the sower usually gets more than he bargains for when sowing. Think about it; when you plant a seed of corn, you do not just harvest a seed! At the least, you get the stalk with several combs of corn. How that happens is still a wonder. We find the truth in this principle playing out in our daily living. We reap usually more than we sow.
This truth plays out in the life of this poor widow in the passage under consideration. She had stepped out in faith when she agreed to share with Elijah the last meal she was preparing for herself and her son. As a result, she got a miracle of abundant supply of food, which lasted all through the period of famine. She got even more than that. Her only son in our reading today who took ill and died was revived by the man of God when she cried out to him. So, more than just getting enough food supply, she got her dead son back to life. It was far more than she bargained!
How encouraging this is! This should motivate us to desire to always sow something positive to other people’s lives. The return may not necessarily be in the same kind, but it will certainly come in far exceeding proportion of what we gave. So then, “Do all the good you can; by all the means you can; in all the ways you can; in all the places you can; at all the times you can; to all the people you can and as long as ever you can”!
However, this does not only apply to doing good. There is payback time for every sin committed. When you sow evil, you will get far more than you bargained. But you can clear all these deficits when you repent of them and accept the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour. Will you not rather do it now?
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Whatever you sow today, you will surely reap tomorrow.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
2 Chronicles 18-21
DCLM Daily Manna 24th July 2021 Deeper Life Devotional Message was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
