We live in a city that is exciting and fun, but truthfully it is a city that will suck the life right out of you. Especially if you are attempting to live for the glory of Jesus. There is certainly a LOT of blatant, in-your-face, darkness and demonic activity in this city. We have been far closer to this than we would care to ever do again. But the darkness in this city is normally something different. It is a weight and heaviness that just pulls the life out of you. It is like a large Anaconda wrapped around you just steadily squeezing, waiting for you to let your breath out so that it can squeeze you a little more.
The result of this tends to be that we run into a lot of people who are discouraged and struggling. Especially those who are here as part of a ministry. What makes it worse is that we feel it too. We feel the discouragement and difficulty as well and find ourselves crying out for the Lord to fill us again. We are like everyone else in that sometimes we just want to sit and let others pour into us.
Yet the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, is teaching us one of the ways that He keeps us continually filled. He started showing us this from the life of Elijah and the widow from Zarephath in 1 Kings chapter 17. This widow was struggling through a difficult time. She had a son to feed, no means, and only enough food left to feed herself and her son and then she would die. All hope of sustenance would be lost at that point.
At this point, God sent Elijah to solicit the widow for the remaining provision that she had. What a crazy bold request! Elijah had been fed by God. He had seen God come through and yet he was asking this woman to give the last she had. For the woman, she had just enough faith to see that she could give this away and either God would come through or she would die just slightly ahead of her time table. So despite what she herself needed.....she poured out. The more she poured the more God filled. She always had enough. The pouring out was actually physically and spiritually fulfilling.
Currently here in Berlin, we are taking a cue from this courageous widow... allowing the Lord to instruct us through her actions. When we are in need and someone comes to us...we pour out. And the Lord is sustaining us! We see encouragement grow in us. We see hope grow in us. We see joy return. And we get to keep going and do not grow weary!
In your life you may be bombarded with demand after demand after demand. You may get discouraged and burned out from time to time. Others may come to you for encouragement or refreshment when you have nothing left to give. We encourage you to pour out. To do so tells your own heart that your Father loves you. The reason you can give away what little you have is because you trust Him to provide for you, just like He is providing for those in need through you.
We love you all and are just so thankful for each one of you. We hope that we can always be an encouragement to you, sharing what we are learning from our good and perfect Father!