For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: The jar of meal shall not waste away or the bottle of oil fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth. – 1 Kings 17:14, Amplified Bible

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God, and all of the daily provision we regularly worry about will be given to us. But long before Jesus spoke these words, a desperate widow woman had faith in this promise of God.

In 1 Kings 17 we find God directing the prophet Elijah into the company of a widow at Zarephath. Upon entering the city, Elijah struck up a conversation with the widow, and during their chat Elijah instructed her to give him the last morsel of food she had. She objected at first, telling Elijah that the food was intended to be her and her son’s last meal. But the Lord (through Elijah) promised her that if she performed His will first (in this case, by feeding Elijah before feeding her family), then she and her son would not go hungry.

The Bible records that the widow obeyed the Lord and that He did indeed provide for her family’s needs. But it does not record why she chose to obey. Hopefully, she obeyed because she simply took God at His word. But if she was like many Christians today, her obedience was not proceeded by simple faith; it was proceeded by utter desperation and a realization that her own plan did nothing more than delay destruction. Sadly, it is often only after we’ve exhausted our own resources and realized the utter futility of our own strength that we turn to God as a last resort, fervently claiming His promise to provide only because we have no place else to turn. For so long we seek our own way, but our own way always leads us to the same place: the land of famine. We can avoid that land – and all of the pain and suffering we’ll find there – by simply obeying Jesus to begin with.

Seek first the kingdom of God – in whatever way He has shown you to do so – and all the things you need shall be added unto you.