Read 1 Kings 17:17-24

Whether you’re a parent or not, many of us have faced heart-breaking, gut wrenching circumstances in life that have left us in a state of complete helplessness.

As a parent, I simply cannot put myself in the shoes of the widow in our reading today. Not only is she a widow but her child, perhaps her only child, is dying. Imagine the sheer weight that is upon her. Imagine her spirit…heavy with grief and rugged from the way life has been to her recently. There is a saying that goes, “God will never give you more than you can handle”.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

I don’t believe there is any way to prepare ourselves for difficulties in life like this widow faced. I do believe, however, that God shows us a way, through His Word, to prepare ourselves for complete reliance on Him in the midst of life’s deepest hurts.

Trials in life either push us farther away from God or draw us closer to Him.

We need to pray and ask God to know Him better.

“I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”

Most of us want to know the power of His resurrection and to become like Him in His death but we often skip over the middle:

“…participate in His sufferings…”

If it is God’s will for us to walk through brokenness and see the hope that only He can give, we need to be all in.

Our prayer should be to focus on His divine perspective and less on our own. We must pursue more of who He is than what He can do. We must be thankful for all that He has given us rather that what we have lost.

It is only by the grace of God that Kelly and I got through a season of grief closer as a couple but also deeper in our relationship with the Lord.

Suffering drives believers to Him.

Regardless of the season you are in, there is life on the other end. You may be holding your pain as the widow was when God is really calling you to surrender it.

In Jesus, we have a companion who is present with us in all our sufferings. Are you going to use this time in your life to deepen your relationship with the Lord or allow it to wedge a divide?

These seasons hurt. I pray that you would take it upon yourselves to lean into the hope, and life, that Jesus offers you.

Jake Lawson