Give Me Your “Not Enough”

When Elijah asks the widow of Zarephath for “a morsel of bread in your hand” (1 Kings 17:11, NKJV), his request seems to imply something that’s already prepared or leftover food. Today we would say, “Please, just give me a lunch box snack from your pantry; I don’t need a hot, cooked meal.” When Elijah understands she has no leftovers, not even a bite, he asks for all she has. We are astonished as she goes home to scrape out her flour barrel. What’s left is not enough for even one ample meal for a hungry traveler. But “not enough” continues to sustain the woman, her child, and Elijah. Sometime later, her child dies suddenly, and the widow is bereft, holding broken bits of plans and remnant drops of hope that even in a famine she finally dares to dream for their future. “Give me your son,” Elijah commands. Can you hear her crying out as she clasps her now lifeless child to her heart, “This is all I have; there is not enough left to give”? The grieving mother is no longer able to scrape out her barrel, so Elijah takes her “not enough,” this empty barrel of life, and carries the child to the upper room.

The man of God prays for resurrection power.

In faith, he lies down on the child’s body with arms outreached.

His posture prefigures Jesus in dying for the penalty of our sins, in redeeming His children, and in giving resurrection hope to us with nothing to save ourselves. Jesus wants to teach us a lesson through Elijah’s story.

He wants us to give Him our “not enough” —the unfulfilled dreams and last dregs of hope— and go to the upper room to pray.

Pray more fearlessly than Elijah praying for a resurrection miracle for which there was no precedent. Pray more deeply than Elijah praying for Israel to be brought to its knees by drought. Pray more fiercely than Elijah praying for Israel to be brought to its feet by fire. Pray more earnestly than Elijah praying for the power of the (latter) rain. In the upper room, tiny resources scraped from our barrels can be anointed with Christ’s resurrection power. Gathered up by Jesus the Miracle Worker, our bits and pieces of “not enough” are infused with new life, new energy, new vision, new purpose, and new ministry.

Rebecca Turner