When the jar is nearly empty
Here’s a question I want you to sit with for a moment.
What would you do if someone asked you to give away the very last thing you had? Not some spare cash at the bottom of a drawer. Not the extra tin in the back of the cupboard. The last thing - the thing you are holding onto just to get through the week.
Most of us, I think, would say no. Politely, maybe. But no.
There’s a woman in the Bible who said yes. She appears in 1 Kings 17, and when we meet her, she’s in the middle of a famine, trying to gather enough sticks to cook one final meal for herself and her son. A stranger - the prophet Elijah - turns up and asks her to make bread for him first.
It’s an extraordinary ask. And she does it anyway.
What follows is one of the quietest miracles in all of scripture. Not a sudden abundance. Just enough flour and oil, renewed each day, throughout the whole famine. Just enough. Just in time.
I think about this story whenever I’m in a season where the jar feels nearly empty - financially, emotionally, physically. It reminds me that trust in God isn’t a reward for when things improve. It’s the step you take before they do.
Psalm 37:25 puts it like this: “I have never seen the godly abandoned.”
That’s not triumphant shouting. It’s a quiet, weathered certainty. And it’s available to us too.
If you’d like to sit with this story for five minutes today, I’ve made a short devotional video exploring all of this - including a gentle challenge and a closing prayer for anyone who’s running low right now.
Watch it here:
You’re not on your own. Bring the jar just as it is.
Rob
Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/what-if-generosity-isnt-about-money?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true