The biggest struggle to being generous and discovering our purpose, and making a difference in the world around us is that we live with a scarcity mindset. A scarcity mindset is a belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, anxiety, and shame. We never do anything because we feel like we are surviving and can’t be generous with our lives and resources. If we never get over this, we will spend our lives on the sideline, never being a part of a movement of God to make difference in the world.
1. Read 1 Kings 17:1-6. Whatever your situation in life, wherever you are, God can use absolutely anything or anybody to provide for you. Can you share a time when God “miraculously” provided for you?
2. Read 1 Kings 17:7-9. If you ever found yourself in a dire situation, would you expect God to provide for you through a penny-less widow? How would you expect God to do it?
3. Read 1 Kings 17:10-16. Who was blessed through this widow’s obedience? The widow and her son or Elijah or all of them?
4. What do you suppose would have happened to the widow if she had chosen not to share her bread with Elijah?
5. It brings God joy when you trust Him with what you have and use it for His purposes. God could do it, but it brings him greater joy when you do it by faith. God could make the ravens feed and care for Elijah, but his heart is to use this widow to play a crucial role in saving a people. Why does it bring God joy to include His children in the work He is doing?
6. Have you ever been put in a situation where things don’t make sense, but you moved ahead with where you believed God is leading you anyway, and then God comes through and provides in ways you could never imagine?
7. Notice that God never asked the widow to give something that she didn’t already have. How important is it to you that God will never ask you to give something that you don’t already have? What should be our attitude toward what God has already given us?
8. Read Matthew 6:32-33. What do these verses indicate our priorities should be?
9. Is it possible to outgive God? Why or why not?