Faith Like a Grain of Flour
God desires for His people to learn to 'let go and let God".
1 Kings(3) (Part of the Mother's Day(3) series)
by Marc Webb(156) on May 10, 2026 (Sunday Morning(430))
Faith Like a Grain of Flour
As I was preparing for this Mother’s Day sermon, I came across this list of What My Mother Taught Me. Let’s see if your mother ever said these things or as a mom if you have ever said them. My Mother taught me HUMOR: ''When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'' My Mother taught me RELIGION: 'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.' My Mother taught me STAMINA: 'You'll sit there until all that spinach is finished.' My mother taught me IRONY: "Keep laughing, and I'll give you something to cry about." My mother taught me about WEATHER: "It looks as if a tornado swept through your room." My mother taught me FORESIGHT: "Make sure you wear clean underwear; in case you're in an accident." My mother taught me about ENVY: "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have a wonderful Mom like you do!" My Mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: 'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.'' My Mother taught me JUSTICE: ''One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. Then you'll see what it's like! I can't wait!' My Mother taught me GENETICS: 'You are just like your father!'' My mother taught me BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: "Stop acting like your father!" My Mother taught me ANTICIPATION: ''Just wait until your father gets home.'' And lastly My Mother taught me LOGIC: ''If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me,'' As well as ''If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you do it too?'' And finally, those decisive words, "Because I said so, that's why."
Motherhood is an incredibly high calling, and being a mom is not easy! And so today, it is very appropriate and right to pause and say ''Thank You'' to our mothers, and to honor them, and thank God for them. At the same time, we know that Mother's Day can be a very difficult day for some. Maybe your mother is no longer alive, and you really miss her. Or maybe you don't or didn’t have a very good relationship with your mother. Or maybe you'd love to be a mother, and that just hasn't happened. So, if Mother's Day is a painful day for you, remember that God loves you more than you could imagine, and wants to be close to you.
This morning, in 1 Kings 17:8-24, we will see how a mother's faith grows and blossoms from the size of a grain of flour to as big as a mountain. As we study this passage this morning, the question for moms and for all of us is where do we ultimately place our trust? Insight, effort, and understanding can only take us so far because they are limited by our own strength and perspective. At some point, we are confronted with situations in life that we cannot fully control or resolve on our own. It is here that faith in God is not an abstract belief, but a necessary foundation—an anchor beyond us that offers meaning, direction, and hope when human ability falls short. We then discover that faith in God calls us not to try harder, but to trust deeper, to actually “let go and let God” take the wheel, so to speak. Repeatedly, scripture shows that God desires His people to loosen their grip on control and learn to rest in His sovereign care. Proverbs 3:5–6, says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” True faith is learned in the releasing: releasing our fears, our plans, and our self-reliance, and placing them fully in the hands of a faithful God who knows, provides, and leads His people exactly where they need to go. But this is not easy, it is learned through testing’s, trials and experiences. So, for all the moms out there and the rest of us, that brings us to our big idea that God desires for His people to learn to “let go and let God.” To “let go and let God” is not an act of passivity, but of confident surrender—believing that He is at work even when we cannot see the outcome.
Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of being able to gather to worship you and hear your word. We humbly ask that you open our hearts and minds to receive your message. Let us be attentive to the working of the Holy Spirit within us. May we be obedient to the commands in your Word, faithfully applying them to our lives and be transformed by them. Jesus' name, Amen.
Our first point is, Faith Demanded, found in 1 Kings 17:8–12. This account takes place while Ahab and Jezebel are king and queen of Israel. They were notorious for promoting Baal worship and persecuting prophets. It is here that Elijah abruptly appears on the scene and pronounces a drought upon the land. God commanded Elijah to hide in the Kerith Ravine, where He supplied him water from the brook to drink and directed ravens to bring him food to eat. Sometime later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain. Have you ever been feasting on the blessings and the goodness of God, thinking that life is good and grand, that is until your brook dries up! Moms, have you ever been there or maybe you are now? Have you ever asked “God, why is this happening?” We have all been there one time or the other. Maybe it’s because God has other plans for you. Maybe He is trying to get your attention. Maybe He has a new opportunity for you to strengthen your faith in Him. Or maybe He has a new place He wants you to go. In verses 8-10a we see these words: “Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath.”
God had other plans for his prophet, and so he sends him to Zarephath, which was eighty to ninety miles from the brook in the land of Phoenicia. Phoenicia was a Gentile land, where Jezebel was born and where her father reigned. Baal was a prominent Canaanite fertility and storm god and the chief deity in the area. It is ironic that the God of Israel brought a drought and famine to the storm god’s land and Baal could do nothing about it. It is important that once we receive ''heavenly orders'' we extend ''human obedience'' to be in the will of God. Elijah was the type of person God could use. He was a man of faith. When God sent orders, Elijah obeyed. That is the key to success in our Christian walk. Elijah received his orders and now he is going to step out in faith and obey the Lord. In obeying, he is also going to help a widow grow her faith in God. In verses 10-12 we see a simple plea, a stunning request and a specific problem. “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?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “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.”
God told Elijah that He had directed a widow to supply him with food, as God had directed the ravens, and so the first thing he saw when he came to the town gate was the widow gathering sticks. This widow is unnamed and we know nothing at all about her other than this story. But we are about to see monumental faith from her. Elijah made a simple and reasonable request. He asked her to fetch him some water. In those days it was normal and hospitable for someone to offer water to those who were visiting. Then as the widow was going to fetch Elijah some water, he makes a stunning request, “and bring me, please, a piece of bread.” Elijah didn’t know it yet, but these would be life-changing words for the widow and for him. On the one hand God had sent Elijah to her, so that she could sustain him throughout the famine. On the other hand, God sent her to Elijah so her faith in the one true God would start to grow and expand.
Elijah’s stunning request must have shook this widow to her very core and it may have even invoked a volcanic eruption of inward struggle. Unbeknownst to Elijah, but not to God, she was preparing a last meal for her and her son. In a burst of unfettered and unfiltered truth, the widow tells Elijah that she does not have any bread and only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. The KJV says that the widow was only gathering two sticks because she did not need much of a fire to bake what little bit of flour and oil, she had left. Once it was cooked, she and her son were going to eat it and die. We wonder what the prophet’s reply would be to the widow, now that he realized that she literally had nothing. And what would her response be to the prophet of God. “Faith is not a freeway without obstacles. It is more like driving on a freeway during rush hour, in pouring rain, without any windshield wipers.” God does not play all his cards when asking us to walk by faith. Elijah was told to go to Zarephath and there a widow would sustain him. God did not share all the details with him. She was near starvation, and the man of God was asking her to prepare him a piece of bread. In the widow’s mind it may have felt like either willful obedience and death, or willful disobedience and death. Either way all she saw coming was death. Would she be willing to muster up enough faith to consider doing as Elijah requested?
Moms, do you remember a time when things were tight financially? Maybe it was when you had your first child and your family grew from two to three or four if you had twins. Or was there ever a time when your children were rebelling against authority and you were at your wit’s end? For the rest of us, have you ever faced desperation when it came to your family? Or some other situation where you were at your wit’s end? What did you do? God wants us to wholly trust in Him. Hear Proverbs 3:5–6 again, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” God commands total reliance on Him rather than human logic, urging believers to surrender personal control in all life areas to receive divine guidance. That brings us to our first next step which is I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, lean not on my own understanding and submit in obedience to Him.
That brings us to our second point, Faith Demonstrated, found in verses 13-18. In verses 13-14, Elijah requests that the widow have great faith. “Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me and then make something for yourself and your son.” 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 sends rain on the land.’” We must wonder if the news that the widow had nothing and that He was about to take everything she had for himself, made Elijah scratch his head? This may have been just as stunning to him as his request was to the widow. But regardless of his shock or his feelings, he knows that God had sent him there and that God had promised to use her to sustain him. Elijah knew that his request sent shockwaves throughout the widow's spirit because he assured her to not be afraid and then asked her to trust in the words of his God. Elijah was not asking the widow for something minor, he was asking her to give her all to him. Moms have you ever been asked by God to give Him everything? How about the rest of us? When all we have is a little and God asks us to give it all to him, how have we responded? How should we respond? Can we trust God with all we have? The answer is an emphatic, “Yes.”
Elijah asks the widow to have faith in the Lord, the God of Israel and not in her puny storm god, Baal. He says if she does as request, her jar of flour would not be used up and her jug of oil would not run dry, until the Lord sends rain on the land. Now the widow had a choice to make: Her and her son could eat the meal and die, or she could trust and be sustained for years, saving both her and her son from certain death. There comes a time when all you have left is the ability to trust and obey, when all you can do “let go and let God” (Big Idea). Next, we see that her faith was rewarded. Verses 15-16 says, “She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So, there was food every day for Elijah and for the widow and her son. 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.” Elijah did his part, asking the widow to do a hard thing. Elijah was merely a vessel, a mouthpiece, chosen to speak for God. The widow did her part. She had faith, heard the word of God from Elijah and obeyed. The widow trusted and her, the prophet, and the boy had food and were able to eat every day. And God was faithful. The jar of flour was never used up, and the jug of oil never ran dry. This is what God expects of His people: to trust and obey.
Sometime after the miracle of the jar and the jug, we find the widow facing an even greater issue, as tragedy strikes and her son gets sick and dies. Faith is not a one-time ordeal, it is a lifetime journey of options, opportunities, obstacles, and obedience. She had seen her faith grow from the size of a grain of flour when she began her journey, but it would grow much bigger and stronger if she was willing again to trust in the Lord. Verse 17 says, “Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and finally stopped breathing.” In verse 18 we see her response. “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?” How many of us foolishly assume that because we have trusted in God, nothing sad or sorrowful will come upon us? This mother is now going to be tested as never before. She could either trust God as she did before or blame Him for her circumstance. Have you ever been there? Have you ever had your life turned upside down? Have you ever been disillusioned and discombobulated, where you couldn't tell up from down? In those moments, we are prone to make baseless and blind accusations against God, the church, and even those whom we love. The widow was distraught and accused the man of God of bringing this tragedy upon her and her son. She may have been thinking it would have been better if Elijah had never showed up at the city gate or that it would have been better if he had just let them die of starvation.
That brings us to our third point, Faith Declared, found in verses 19-24. The widow had faced a time where her faith was challenged, and she had to trust in God and obey Him even when all seemed lost. She had trusted God with her handful of flour and the little bit of olive oil she had. Now could she trust God with her dead son? In verse 19, we see the widow’s growing faith. “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. It is one thing to give God your last handful of flour and last drop of olive oil, but can you trust him with something unthinkable? She had already seen God do two miracles: making bread she shouldn’t have been able to make and seeing the flour and oil multiply. Now she is put to the ultimate test, “give me your son!!!'' It may be one thing to give God all our possessions but it’s something else entirely to give God the people that are most precious and dearest to us? This mother is one of the greatest examples of faith that we find in the entire bible. She had given God her meager handful of bread, she had given God her minute measure of oil and now she will give God her boy. The widow took her dead son and placed him into the hands of God. When you have done all that you can do, can you give up all control, lay it on God and leave the rest up to him? The widow “let go and let God” and that’s a lesson we all need to learn (Big Idea). That brings us to our second next step which is I will “let go and let God’, giving up all control for my life to Him.
We see in verses 21-24 that God again rewards her faith, “Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” Then 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.” This is a story of faith in the one true and living God by both His chosen people and those who worshipped other gods. Elijah had trusted God to give him water from the brook and food from the ravens. And when the brook dried up, he trusted God by going to Zarephath. The widow had trusted God with her last handful of flour and last drop of olive oil. Could they both now trust God with the dead boy? They most assuredly could. Elijah prayed over the boy with a faith that believed that his God could and would raise him from the dead. God answered his prayer and the boy was once again alive and well. We can see the mother’s faith, now a mountain, as she declared, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” Earlier, in one sense, the widow already believed in Elijah’s God, but now that she has seen death transformed into life, she knows the God of Elijah. What a testimony of faith.
In conclusion, I want to read this illustration: Land diving is a ritual performed by the men of the southern part of Pentecost Island in the South Pacific. The precursor to bungee jumping, men jump off wooden towers around 66 to 98 ft high, without any safety equipment, except for vines wrapped around their ankles. It is performed annually in the months of April, May, or June and is associated with the annual yam harvest. The villagers believe land diving can enhance the health and strength of the divers, remove the illnesses and physical problems associated with the wet season, and ensure a bountiful harvest. It is considered an expression of masculinity, as it demonstrates boldness that was associated with the Bahri or warrior. The construction of the tower typically takes between two to five months and around twenty to thirty men to build it. They use freshly cut trees to build the body, so it remains strong. They clear a site for the tower, remove rocks from the soil and then till the soil to soften the ground. The vines are selected by a village elder and matched with each jumper's weight without any mechanical calculations. The vines need to be supple, elastic, and full of sap to be safe. If the vine is too long, the diver can hit the ground hard, but if the vine is too short, then the diver can collide with the tower. Before diving, the men often bring closure to unsettled business and disputes in case they die. And the night before the jump, divers sleep beneath the tower to ward off evil spirits.
This story shows how extreme some people are in trying to display their faith in their false gods. Reminds me of the next chapter in 1 Kings. Elijah is directed by God to challenge the prophets of Baal to see whose God is alive. They prepared the bull on the altar and called Baal to send fire to light it. They call Baal all night, but there is no response. They shout louder and louder and cut themselves with swords and spears. But there was still no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. Faith in God is not proven by risking our lives to impress Him. Faith in God comes by trusting in Him with our whole hearts; to “let go and let God,” (big idea). Then God is pleased when we speak that trust out loud. I challenge us all this next week, to choose one person, a friend, a coworker, or a family member, and testify to what God has done in your life—simply and honestly. Ask if you can pray for them, and let your words point to God’s strength, not your own. If they don’t know Jesus as their Savior and Lord, ask the Holy Spirit to give you the words so they will be drawn to Jesus for their salvation. And moms, maybe there is another mom you know who needs to hear about your faith in Jesus. That brings us to our last next step which is I will testify this week to someone around me about my faith in Jesus and what He has done for me.
As the Praise Team comes to lead in a final song and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for reminding us today that true faith means learning to let go and let You take control. Help us to trust You with all our hearts and not rely on our own understanding. Teach us to surrender our fears, our plans, and our need for control into Your hands. Strengthen every mother here today—encourage them, sustain them, and grow their faith each day. And help all of us to trust You more deeply and to share our faith with someone this week. Use our lives to point others to Jesus. In His name Amen.
Opening: “Things My Mother Taught Me” (Various)
Closing: Wikipedia - Land Diving
