Woodspring Community Church

A family-friendly church in Weston-super-Mare

What is in your hand?

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Exodus 4: 1-3

¹ Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"

² Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.

³ The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. ⁴ Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ⁵ "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you."

Why did Moses have a staff in his hand?

Would it have been easy for him to throw it down? Did he know God would return it?

How do you think Moses felt? How do you cope when God asks for something?

If God tells us to let go of something can we trust enough to do it?

The staff was necessary for Moses to earn a living, he had to lay this before God.

Did God use the staff again – can you remember when?

What is in your hand? How would you respond if God asked you?

1 kings 17: 3

The Widow at Zarephath

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 of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place 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 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."

¹³ Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake 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 gives 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.

V9 God tells Elijah that He has already spoken to the widow but she appears not know when Elijah speaks to her?

What does Elijah ask for first? What is the widows reponse?

Then he asks for bread. What is her response now? What has she already decided to do with the little she has?

Who gets fed first?

What does God do for the widow? What would have happened if she hadn’t given to Elijah first?

What is in your hand? How would you respond if God asked you?

2 Kings 4

The Widow's Oil

¹ The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves."

² Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"
"Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."

³ Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."

⁵ She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."
But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

When Elisha asks the widow what is in her hand what is the response? How do you respond when God asks this?

As she gives the little she has what does God do?

What would have happened if she had not trusted the man of God?

How do you think she felt asking the neighbours for jars? They must have known she had nothing to put in them!

What is in your hand? How would you respond if God asked you?

Luke 21

The Widow's Offering

¹As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ²He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

Did the widow give from abundance?

i.e. What was left after her needs were met?

Once she had given how do you think she felt?

Office Address:

0845 519 3873