Overcoming Fear: A Study In Destiny of the Widow of Zarephath

Have you ever felt like you’ve got too many weaknesses to be a part of fulfilling someone else’s destiny? Have you ever felt like you just don’t have the resources you need to fulfill your destiny? Then you are in the right place, reading the right article…

We can learn valuable lessons from the Widow of Zarephath because we will all, at some point in our lives, face painful and desperate times. Life doesn’t show or play favoritism. The Widow of Zarephath challenges us to make time in our hearts and schedules to meet the needs of others, even when life hasn’t dealt us the fairest cards. In these moments, we are all tempted to pull out our victim cards, but the Widow did the very opposite.

⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” ¹² “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 17:7-12 (NIV)

Of all people in Zarephath of Sidon, why do you think God sent Elijah to the Widow of Zarephath?

Why didn’t God send him to someone that had more time & less “issues”?

Have you ever wondered if you had too many issues to be used by God?

Do you believe that God has destined you to make a difference in people’s lives?

Don’t Let Pain Make a Victim of You

Although she was a single mother, a drought had depleted all she had and her hope of survival was almost gone, she was still willing to help and meet Elijah’s needs. Despite her limited resources, she served. She didn’t let her lack of resources stop her from fulfilling her destiny.

Where in your life do you feel like you have limited or no resources?

Are you allowing these “limitations” to stop you from serving others?

Are you pulling out your victim card or are you acting like the Widow?

Who has God put in your path to help serve? Are you serving them?

¹³ 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.¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’” ¹⁵ 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.¹⁶ 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 17:13-16 (NIV)

Don’t Let Fear Stop you from Fulfilling your Destiny

Why do you think Elijah asked her to make him food first before making food for her and her son?

What do you think it took for her to listen to Elijah instead of give in to her fears?

What are the risks that you believe God wants you to take?  In your relationship with Him? In your relationships (spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, friends)? In your career? In the community?

Whose life will you change/impact if you took on your fears by taking a risk?

¹⁷ Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

1 Kings 17:17-18 (NIV)

Although the Widow of Zarephath experienced the miracle of God supplying unlimited supplies of food & water for her and her son, she faced a new challenge that made her doubt God’s love for her. Not only had she lost her husband, but she was now faced with the challenge of losing her only son. And like most of us during hard times, we look for someone to blame. But she didn’t know that this “setback” was also part of her destiny and an opportunity to experience even greater miracles in her life.

¹⁹ “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 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 17:19-24 (NIV)

Little did she know that the very person she risked her life for was the very person that was going to save her son? What if she refused to help Elijah? What if she told him that she was too poor and in too much distress to help? What would have happened to her son?

God brings people into our lives because, more often than not, our destinies are intertwined. Elijah and the widow were meant to meet and their destinies were intertwined. She helped him in his time of need and he helped her in her time of need.

Who has God put in your path?

When we live by faith and not by fear, we not only fulfill our destinies, but we fulfill the destinies of those that God put in our path!