DCLM Daily Manna 26 October 2026: God Our Sufficiency
KEY VERSE: “And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah” (1 Kings 17:16).
TEXT: 1 KINGS 17:8–16
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”
15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.
READ OTHER DCLM DAILY DEVOTIONAL HERE
Prophet Elijah’s dramatic entry into Scripture turned out to be as eventful as his life was right up to the point when he was caught up to heaven in a chariot of fire. The Bible brings him forth first as the harbinger of God’s judgment of drought upon Israel under the reign of the evil King Ahab. Next, God shields him from the ensuing three-and-a-half-year famine, keeping him by a stream to be fed by birds. When the water dries up, God dispatches His servant to Zarephath where He has “commanded a widow woman there to sustain [him]”. The scene then shifts to the home of the poor woman hard hit by the starvation in the land. With an only son, she was preparing the last meal before death.
Truly, the circumstances by the widow’s reckoning suggested finality. When Elijah asked for food, she said: “As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” But Elijah knew that God’s word was not death for the place where He had sent him on a mission. God’s word would stand no matter what seems contrary.
God wrought a great miracle when the woman dwelt on the word of God, the same way Apostle Peter declared he would drop the net at the word of Jesus, leading him to experience a “boat-sinking miracle”. All the miracles attributed to Elijah were “according to the word of the LORD.”
With the whole world and its nations and governments reeling under failed and failing economic, political and philosophical ideologies and strategies such as the northern kingdom of Israel faced in the days of the Zarephath widow, mankind can only be delivered by the same God that came to the woman’s aid. God demands total trust in His word as revealed to us by Jesus Christ.
Many suffer and lack because of the failure to take God at His word. For those who stand firmly on His word, even in the face of overwhelming opposition, His word will never fail them. Learn to take God at His word and unlock the manifold blessings undergirding His sacred will.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Fallen man can rise again through the power of God’s word.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Proverbs 15–17.
DCLM Daily Manna 26 October 2026
