A faith that can’t be tested with what God has placed in your life now, cannot be trusted with what God plans for your life in the future. In 1 Kings 17 Elijah appeared before Ahab and announced, “… surely there will be neither do nor rain these years, except by my word.” It did not rain for 3 ½ years.
After the announcement, the Lord told Elijah to go and hide himself by the brook Cherith and then said to him, “And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” Elijah lived by the brook Cherith, and ravens brought him meat and bread every morning and every evening. In that place, God was teaching Elijah how to live miraculously, one day at a time.
Whatever situation you find yourself in today, God wants to use it to teach you how to daily trust in his supernatural provision. He wants you to discover the limitlessness of His daily grace. But there is something else that God is doing in your present situation. He is testing your faith to prepare you for His future plans for your life. It is never just about what God is doing in our life now. There is always a synergy about God’s ways in our lives, and what He’s doing in us now is also meant to prepare us for what’s coming next. In “the now”, God is wanting to teach you to trust in His faithfulness for today, so that you will be able to trust him for bigger things in the future.
When the brook finally dried up (it dried up by the way because Elijah had been praying for it not to rain), God spoke to Elijah and told him to go to Zarephath where a completely impoverished Gentile woman would provide for him even though she had absolutely nothing to offer. At this woman’s house, Elijah decreed that the little bit of flour and oil she had left would be multiplied every day until the years of drought and famine come to an end. Again, Elijah was learning to not just trust in God for the daily miraculous, but he was now releasing it into the life of someone else, and before he left the woman’s home sometime later, God used him to raise her son from the dead. This is the first account in Scripture of God using a person to raise the dead.
What if Elijah had not trusted the Lord by the brook Cherith. What if he had fretted in unbelief every day about whether or not the ravens were going to bring the meat and the bread? What if he had not passed that test and opportunity for faith that God had placed him in? If Elijah had not passed the test of faith at Cherith, I don’t believe he would’ve ever walked in miraculous at Zarephath.
Again, a faith that can’t be tested with what God has placed in your life now cannot be trusted with what God plans for your life in the future.
Always keep in mind, there is more at stake than just you passing the test of faith today.