“We don’t see the grass around our feet when we look only for the towering trees.”

1 Kings 17 tells the story of how the prophet Elijah fled to the region of Sidon on the Palestinian coast during a great drought and famine in Israel. Elijah was led to the home of a poor widow and her son, and when Elijah asked for a little water and a small piece of bread the woman replied:

“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 17:12).

Elijah told the woman that the God of Israel had promised that if she did as he asked, “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” (1 Kings 17:14).  The woman complied and sure enough, after that meal and others there was still food every day for the woman and her son as well as Elijah, “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 17:16).

This situation must have continued for a while because the Bible reports, “Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 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).  Elijah prayed over the young man and God restored the youth’s life. It is only then that 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 17:24).

Are we like the Sidonian woman in so often missing the continuing everyday miracles of our lives and losing faith – despite those small miracles – when severe problems come on us?  We read the story and wonder, “How could she not have noticed the ongoing miracle of the lasting flour and oil – especially when Elijah told her it would be so?” But would the woman read the story of our lives and wonder, in the same way, why we did not notice the things that were worked out for us and others around us? 

Perhaps this is part of what the Prophet Isaiah referred to when he spoke the words quoted by Jesus: “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving” (Isaiah 6:9, Matthew 13:14).  Certainly the “hearing” refers to hearing the word of God and not understanding it, but the “seeing and never perceiving” must surely refer to things we witness but simply do not grasp or see the significance they have for us.

Perhaps we should remind ourselves of the story of the woman of Sidon when we next face a difficult situation. Rather than fearing the lack of some large needed miracle when we need help, perhaps the way of faith is that we should remind ourselves of all the small miracles that brought us to the point where we are now.  But it’s a question we can all ask ourselves at any time: what are the ongoing flour and oil in our lives – what are the small miracles that we are missing?

“Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.” – Joyce Meyer

Most of us spend a good deal of our lives waiting. Waiting for weekend, for warmer weather, for football season, for payday, for evening, for our ship to come in …

But these are just things we would like. There are, of course, many more serious aspects to waiting in life: waiting for recovery from injury, for reconciliation with estranged loved ones, for urgent needs such as employment, freedom from pain or other important things. These are the situations where having to wait can be a challenge, and in some cases even a trial.  The answer to this kind of waiting is ultimately faith in God’s ability to work things out in our lives, but there are also some things we can do to help ourselves while we wait.

Those who do studies of efficiency in the business world, who perhaps understand waiting better than most of us, tell us that when we are waiting for things  we tend to switch into a “neutral” mode and don’t produce as much. We often spend more time and energy in waiting mode than we do in relaxation or productive work.  But the more we can focus on our overall goals – the really important things we are working toward –  the less we are frustrated by smaller, less significant, waiting and the more productive we are as we wait.  

The Bible shows us that this type of goal-focused patience can be applied both short and long term. Notice what David says about short-term waiting: “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:83).  By waiting “expectantly” David meant that he waits, trusting the outcome.  Believing the outcome of something we have taken to God will be in our best interests helps us in waiting and allows us to get on with other things.

The same is true in the long term as we see in those famous words of Job: “All my appointed time I will wait till my change comes” (Job 14:14 KJV). This is not passive waiting, as a careful reading of the Book of Job shows.   If we focus on the truly big picture, it can not only help get us through short-term problems and waiting, but also it allows us to keep moving toward our overall goals, our life purposes.

And there is another aspect to this that we should keep in mind. We tend to only see waiting from our own perspective, rather than from the perspective of God, but the Bible indicates that God is often waiting for us just as much as we are waiting for Him:  “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation ...”  (2 Peter 3:15).  God focuses on the big goals of what He is accomplishing in human life, but He doesn’t just tell us what to do and sit back and wait – He actively works with us while He waits patiently for us to grow as He desires.

So If we can focus on the big goals in our lives when we are in waiting mode, we can produce more and  often bypass much of the frustration of delays in the smaller things. It’s a principle that provides a simple question we should ask ourselves when we grow restless with the waiting we all have to do in life – whether it’s at home, work, or in some medical waiting room:  can we be doing something productive toward our larger goals while we are waiting?  The answer is almost always an encouraging one.

How do we grow our faith?   Think about plant biology:  how does a tree grow – from its roots or its branches?  The answer to that question is, of course, both. If you cut off a tree’s roots it can’t grow, but if you cut off its branches it won’t grow either.  A healthy tree usually has just as large a root system as it does a branching system above ground, and the success of the two are connected (Job 18:16).  The branches won’t grow upward more than the roots can grow down (Mark 4:5-6) and vice versa.

Humans have probably understood this basic fact about plants since the Stone Age, and it’s the basis of a simple analogy that the apostle Paul used in his writings:

 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught,  and overflowing with thankfulness”  (Colossians 2:6-7).

Paul tells us here that we should be rooted down on the one hand and built up on the other.  It’s a building analogy – of having a foundation and a superstructure, but it’s also an analogy of a tree taking root down and growing upward.  Paul uses the same combined imagery of planting and building in 1 Corinthians 3:9 and  Ephesians 3:18, but whichever analogy we use, it is clear that Paul means that being rooted  and strengthened in faith are one and the same thing, just as being built up and overflowing with thanks are also the same. 

Paul utilizes the same technique for a slightly different point in the Book of Ephesians:

“... I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:16-18).

Here, in Ephesians, the analogy is one of being rooted in love, and grasping the love of Christ.  The more we understand the love of Christ, the deeper we too become grounded in love. In Colossians Paul tells us the same about faith – the more we overflow or grow upward in thanksgiving the more we become rooted downward in faith. The two are connected and cannot be viewed apart.

So how do we grow our faith; how does it become ever more deeply rooted? There may be a number of ways such as studying the lives of people of faith.*  Paul shows us that one answer is certainly through thanksgiving. The more we recognize what God is doing in and through us and others, the more we appreciate and are thankful for that, then the more we will grow in the gift of faith.  

*See also the "Growing in Faith" and "Faith Hall of Fame" sections of our Articles pages.

The son of a businessman and a concubine in Kobe, Japan, Toyohiko Kagawa was taken into the homes of two American missionaries, Dr. Harry W. Myers and Dr. Charles A. Logan when the boy’s parents died.

The young Kagawa learned English and eventually converted to Christianity, at which point he was  renounced by the remaining members of his original  family. Kagawa was thus free to follow his new beliefs and he studied at Tokyo Presbyterian College, Kobe Theological Seminary, and from 1914 to 1916 at Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States.

The young seminarian was troubled, however, by the stress on doctrines which were often of no practical importance, and he developed a firm conviction that Christianity was a religion of action rather than just beliefs. Kagawa thus embarked on other studies in addition to his religious training and studied subjects such as genetics, anatomy and agriculture.

This stress on the practical aspects of life can already be seen in the fact that In 1909 Kagawa moved into a Kobe slum in order to serve as a missionary and social worker, and after completing his studies at Princeton he published his first influential work, Researches in the Psychology of the Poor, based on his experience of slum society, including what he had learned of the widespread practices of prostitution, drug use and even the practice of accepting money to care for children and then killing them.

Kagawa developed many avenues to employ Christian principles by which the poor could be helped, such as in the organization of labor and social cooperatives.  He also fought for universal suffrage so that first all men, then women could vote.   His often radical views in these areas led to his arrest on several occasions, but he was always released and continued his work. He was also a strong advocate of peace and in 1940 he was arrested yet again for making a public apology to the Republic of China for Japan's occupation of China.

Behind the public persona known for struggles and arrests, Kagawa tirelessly continued his basic work on behalf of the poor and those in need. He helped to organize relief work in Tokyo following the Great Earthquake of 1923 and also established a number of schools, hospitals, and Christian churches in Japan. Few Christians have ever impacted society in so many areas as Kagawa.  The effects of his work were felt in so many different arenas that he gained international recognition for his efforts.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948 (in the course of his life he wrote over 150 books), and also for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1955.  After his death, he was awarded the second-highest honor of Japan (induction to the Order of the Sacred Treasure), and today he is commemorated each year on the anniversary of his death by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Kagawa was always a practical person, directly applying Christianity in life. One of his most famous statements (and an inspiring one to those who know how much he accomplished) is: "I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.”

*Note:  Since publishing this post we decided to transfer the series on "Lessons From the Kings of Israel and Judah" to our sister site – TacticalChristianity.org – (see the announcement above). You can follow the series there!



King Asa of Judah was the great-grandson of Solomon and ruled only two generations after the split between the tribes of Judah and the rest of Israel.  The son of king Abijah, who appears to have  trusted  in  the  true God (2 Chronicles 13:18),  Asa ruled Judah for 41 years and seems to have been upright in his acts for most of that time. 

He was clearly zealous in maintaining the worship of God and acted decisively to root out idolatry and its associated immorality, destroying  the pagan altars and sacred places throughout the kingdom.  The king even deposed his own grandmother for worship of pagan gods and turned the people back to the traditional worship of God. Asa, we are told,  did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God (2 Chronicles 14:2).

Asa also fortified cities in Judah and successfully repelled an invasion by a hugely outnumbering Cushite-Egyptian force with a demonstration of clear faith. The biblical record  tells us: “Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you’”(2 Chronicles 14:11). Chronicles continues to detail how Asa’s forces routed the much larger army and drove it from Judah.  As a result, the kingdom had peace under Asa and for many years no one tried to make war against him.

But in his 36th year of rule Asa was confronted by Baasha, king of the northern tribes, who constructed a fortress at Ramah, less than ten miles from Jerusalem.  While Asa had responded in faith to the Cushite threat, he appears to have crumbled under this one. Taking all the gold from the temple of God he offered it to Ben-Hadad, king of Damascus, as a bribe to convince that king to negate his treaty with Baasha and to invade the Northern Kingdom (2 Chronicles 16:2-6). Ben-Hadad took the gold and invaded his erstwhile ally, Israel, forcing Baasha to withdraw from Ramah. 

Asa then tore down Baasha’s stronghold and used the stone to build two fortresses in his own territory. History shows these two fortified areas were not successful in protecting Judah from attacks that would occur in the future, so ultimately Asa traded the gold taken from the temple for a false security.  In that sense, Asa’s two fortresses are clearly symbols of a failure of faith (2 Chronicles 16:7-9).

Considering his earlier faith under sudden, more intense pressure, we can only conclude that Asa fell under a more prolonged and unrelenting stress as Baasha began to build his forces on Judah’s border. It seems Asa discovered that wars of attrition can erode our confidence more than sudden danger. Doubtless there is a lesson for us in this. It is often easier to respond in faith to a sudden crisis, but more difficult when the problem drags on and wears us down. In those circumstances we must be careful not to allow the problem to become an excuse for taking from God what is rightfully His – perhaps not in gold, but in our time and energy as well as our trust and confidence in Him.

Perhaps as a result of the attrition of his faith, it is recorded that in his old age Asa was afflicted with a disease of his feet, and he “sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12), meaning his trust was only toward the physical. Nevertheless, Asa was considered for the most part a good king and was honored by many of his people when he died. The story of Asa's responses to different threats may also serve as a lasting lesson for us – especially in our response to protracted stresses and problems. Sometimes the greatest need for faith is not in sudden crises, but in the ongoing problems of everyday life.

LINCOLN’S BATTLE WITH GOD: A PRESIDENT'S STRUGGLE WITH FAITH AND WHAT IT MEANT FOR AMERICA   By Stephen Mansfield.

Christians, agnostics and atheists alike have claimed Abraham Lincoln as their own – how can this be? Historian Stephen Mansfield’s book examines the complex life of this great man and assesses the information we have that might support claims of Lincoln’s faith – or lack of it.

A masterfully written and fascinating book, Lincoln’s Battle with God puts the life of the sixteenth president in a clearer perspective than is often found and shows not contradictory evidence, but the road to faith of a man who was first an unbeliever, then later perhaps an agnostic, but finally a man of faith. See our Review here.

For many atheists and agnostics, the idea of a God who encourages or demands praise and worship seems selfishly motivated and self-centered.  It is presumed that the divine command for worship is the equivalent of the actions of humans whose egos cannot get enough reinforcement.

But the Bible does clearly teach the fact that God encourages and even commands worship, and His servants do offer praise and worship to Him continually – so why is this?  Our article "Why Do We Need To Worship?" examines this question and shows the clear biblical reasons why we need to worship.

SCRIPTURE IN QUESTION:  1 Kings 4:26  and 2 Chronicles 9:25  
 
“Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen” (1 Kings 4:26).
“Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen” (2 Chronicles 9:25).

Some translations of the Bible, such as the NIV, actually change the text of I Kings 4:26 to read “four thousand” so as to avoid an apparent contradiction with 2 Chronicles 9:25, presuming the Book of Kings to have introduced a scribal error by writing “forty thousand” instead of “four thousand.”  But this is an unnecessary supposition, and there need be no contradiction between the two accounts.  The two scriptural passages may simply describe different kind of stalls:

– In Kings the forty thousand stalls are for chariot horses (nothing is said about the chariots themselves).
– In Chronicles, four thousand stalls are mentioned that were for horses and chariots.

It would be natural for there to be fewer stalls for chariots, and the large “chariot stalls” may have been stables with individual stalls for each of the horses in the chariot’s team as well as a holding area for the chariot itself. In other words, the four thousand stalls may have contained many more smaller stalls for the horses.

Another verse sheds additional light on this.  In 2 Chronicles 1:14 we see that Solomon had “fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses,” so all accounts agree on the number of horses/horsemen, but Kings and Chronicles probably look at different types of stalls. 

Why would there be more chariot stalls (four thousand) than there were chariots (fourteen hundred)?  Historically we must realize that Solomon’s standing army was probably garrisoned in specific areas, but stables may well have been built in other fortified areas and outposts to house chariots and horses for units that might need to be moved to them temporarily, depending on defensive needs.

So there is not necessarily any contradiction between the Books of Kings and Chronicles and, fortunately, most recent English Bible translations such as the ESV and HCSB preserve the text of these different verses as they were written.

“In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Timothy 2:20-21).

I remember when I was young, my parents had two sets of dishes – an everyday set and a good set for  visiting  “company” and other special occasions.  The good dishes had to be not just washed but polished up to remove even the smallest water spots because of the special occasions for which they would be used.  

In Paul’s analogy, it’s not an occasional “special occasion”  but an ongoing  job for which the special dishes are needed, and Paul insists that  we – as those special-purpose dishes – must be cleaned for that work.  Now no one likes to have to wash dishes, and although it’s not always an easy task cleaning ourselves up spiritually, Paul tells us that’s what God wants us to do if we want to do His work. 

Naturally, Paul understood that it is Christ who cleanses us in terms of our standing with God,  but then as he says,  we (“Those who cleanse themselves”) have to continue the work in getting ongoing sin out of our lives.  Not that we have to be perfect for God to use us – none of God’s human servants has ever been perfect –  but the important thing about the domestic analogy Paul uses  is not that we are expected to be perfect yet, but rather the cleaner we are, the more we conform to His way of life, the more God  can use us.

That is really a sobering but encouraging thought that applies to all of us.  God is Holy and with His help we should strive to be, too, as the apostle John wrote:  “…we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).  But the reason for us to cleanse or “purify” ourselves is not just to “qualify” ourselves, but to be able to let God effectively use us in helping others. We are not just spiritually “washing the dishes” for the sake of  becoming clean as an end in itself, we are to become the “…vessels for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”