***Listen To Audio Version: Blessed in the Valley Audio 599
Today’s Devotional Scripture: 12 And 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.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. - 1 Kings 17:12-15 KJV
The Message For Today (July 23, 2026):
***Listen To Audio Version: Blessed in the Valley Audio 599
God indeed uses the foolish things to confound the wise. We see here in the cornerstone scripture that the Lord directs Elijah to go forth into a city and that He has directed a widow to care for Elijah. The only problem? The widow in question is preparing her last meal for herself and her son. She is not one of means. She does not have stored-up resources. She’s not a wealthy widow.
She is a woman who is at the bottom of her life. She is lacking. After years of famine, she is now in the position to feed her son and herself their last meal together. And she says as much to the prophet: that she is making a meal for herself and her son and that they will die after.
She has resigned herself to being in this low place. She has resigned herself to the fact that this is all that they have remaining, and the Lord is directing her to care for Elijah. It’s almost as if the Lord had a plan that went beyond what she could understand and that the plan defied all logic. It defied the nature of her life. It defied the circumstances.
Nevertheless, this was the plan of the Father.
This was the plan of God. It did not rely on what she could see; it relied on what she believed. The opportunity to see something different, to give unto the prophet first and then to herself and her son. It is important to note that the way the Lord directed Elijah to go forth and the way that the woman is then directed to prepare a part of the meal for the prophet are both instructions of faith.
These faith-based instructions go not on the understanding of Elijah, nor on the understanding of the widow, but on the faith to believe what it is that they both hear. The prophet, hearing from God, and the woman, the widow, hearing from Elijah the prophet.
There are seasons and times to go alone, to do it alone, to walk and to be the only one on that limb. There are seasons when you will be in the presence of the living God and hear Him speak to you about your family, about things that you can do to change the circumstances, about the things to pray for, about the way to apply your hands to the plow and to go forth for your family.
There are seasons that God will walk with you and show you the way. And then there are seasons where you will hear from others the will of the Father. You will hear from others the grace of God. You will hear from your spiritual leader, your pastor, your husband. You will hear these edicts.
You will hear the blessing of the Lord. You will hear it through elder women. You will hear it through even the voices, the Jeremiahs, that will speak to you even though they are young. And so we all have these seasons of hearing ourselves and the times and seasons, the very moment of hearing from God through another.
In this case, the woman was single-mindedly preparing her final meal. However, the Lord had another plan for her that she could not conceive or see before this occurrence, before this divine connection, before the prophet Elijah walked into her life, and before the prophet spoke these words over her; the instructions and the edicts.
In the moments when you feel like:
there is nothing left,
that you have nowhere to go,
that you don’t know what’s happening,
you don’t know how God is moving, and
you have resigned yourself to be in that valley and to die in that valley,
to remain in that valley,
to be resigned to the fact that you may or may not ever come out of it,
to simply be content to eat your last meal,
to be content to let go of that dream you’ve had for years;
there are seasons when we get to that moment, and God sends a fresh wind.
He sends a word. He sends a prophet of the Lord. He sends a song that speaks to our heart. He sends a church service that we didn’t plan on going to, but somehow we ended up in. He sends the video that pops up on our screen on social media.
He reaches you right where you are and whatever valley you may be in. And He reminds us of His word in Psalm 23, where it says that we walk through the valley. We’re not meant to die in them. We’re not meant to remain stuck in them. We’re meant to walk through valleys, to move through valleys, and to be blessed in the valley beyond our own understanding.
This was a faith move. It was a demonstration. It was the Lord ordering our steps. The steps of the widow to be there at that moment. The steps of the prophet to be there in that moment. The steps being ordered all around is how our God reigns over our everyday lives.
That chance encounter with an elder, that person who speaks life to us in social media, the person who randomly picks up the phone and gives us a call when we’re feeling down. This is the way the Lord reminds us that we are indeed blessed in our valleys. That regardless of what it looks like, He is right there with us.
And why not use a woman of means? Why not use a woman that had it all together? Well, as we know, the Lord has a tendency to use the foolish things to confound the wise. A virgin who was not yet married to carry the Christ, a woman to actually have the victory who stuck a peg through the ear of the enemy. Jael.
So we have these scriptures which show us that the Lord indeed uses the confounding situation, the situation that doesn’t make logical sense. It is not naturally making sense. It is not naturally aligned. It is not logic. It is the will of the Father.
It is not human understanding. For God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. It is His will come forth in the earth. It is the grace of God being released. It is sudden breakthrough when we least expect it. It is the valleys turning out to be the birthplace of something new.
It is the valleys turning out to be transformational moments that we don’t just get stuck in, we walk through. You are indeed blessed in the valley right where you are. He has not forgotten about you.
Closing Devotional Prayer
My prayer for you,
Father, in the name of Jesus: thank you, thank you God, for miracle signs and wonders. Thank you for covering the mighty woman of God. I thank you for the grace and the glory. This morning as we turn to the end of the devotional, I bless you, God.
I thank you for breaking up the fallow ground. Please, Lord, have your way. Cast down all imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. I thank you for 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, which tells us that even though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through you, O God, for the pulling down of every stronghold, casting down all imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bring down every wall. God, you are good, and your mercy endures forever.
I thank you for the grace of God this morning. I thank you for the glory. I thank you for this word this morning. You are the I Am that I Am, and there is nobody like you. So, Lord, have your way. King of glory, break up the fallow ground.
Lord, you are good and your mercy endureth forever. I thank you that the mighty woman of God is being reminded that you are with her in the valleys; you’re with her in the low places; O God, you are with her in the tough seasons and transitions.
You are with her. And that when it is time, when you send forth the Word, a message, a person, a messenger with the Word. I just thank you, God, that you are faithful and more than able to finish what you started. I thank you, Lord, and I pray in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.