Forever Young
4 min read
22 The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”
— 1 Kings 17:22-24
The woman of Zarephath had already experienced a supernatural miracle through Elijah. The first miracle prevented death for her and her son. Maybe it did not dawn on her that the God who could give her an endless supply of flour and oil could also provide Elijah with the food he needed to live. Why did he need her help?
But it’s not that God or Elijah needed her help. She needed God’s help to live. We all need God’s help to live each and every day. But “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
As incredible as that first miracle was, it did not prevent her son from dying in the end. In fact, being brought back from death to life would not prevent her son from dying in the end. And so it is with every single one of us. We can experience a million and one miracles in our lives, but none of them will prevent any of us from returning to the dust from where we came.
We don’t need miracles to prevent us from dying. We need the word of God to give us power for living life to the full. The difference in the way of thinking is subtle but significant.
It’s not that God does not care about our health, our welfare, our well-being. He cares very much. But He does not want us to live with the expectation that we will eventually die. God wants us to live, to truly live, with the expectation of eternal life. And the food that we all need to truly live can only be found in “every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
Father, I confess that so often I live my life from the perspective of my short life here on earth. But You have given me so much more to live for. Why do I sell myself short. Give me power to live the fullness of life that You have given me through Your Spirit. In Jesus’s name. Amen.