“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

• Mark 9:23

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.

• 1 Kings 17:16

“When Betsie and 1 were imprisoned in Scheveningen, we were given a small bottle of Davitamon oil. Thankfully, we had it with us in the prison of Ravensbruck, as well. Each morning I would dole out a drop of the vitamin onto Betsie’s piece of black bread. I was concerned about her weakening health and wondered how much longer the small bottle would last. ‘Especially,’ I would tell her, ‘if you keep sharing it around every time someone sneezes.’
“My instinct was always to hoard it for Betsie, but I knew others were ill as well. It was hard to say no to eyes that burned with fever, hands that shook with a chill. I tried to save it for the very weakest-but even those soon numbered fifteen, twenty, twenty-five…
“And still, every time I tilted the little bottle, a drop appeared at the top of the glass stopper. It just couldn’t be! I held it up to the light, trying to see how much was left, but the dark brown glass was too thick to see through.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place

“I accept God’s unexplainable gifts as surprises from a Father who loves me.”

• Corrie ten Boom, Highlighted Quote

Boilerplate

In this new mini-series, I will be looking at a devotion that is said to be written by Corrie ten Boom.  Really, this devotion is like several that I had read.  They come from the writings of that person.  Thus, the prayers at the end may be the editor’s addition to what Corrie ten Boom actually wrote.

Each of these posts will include the suggested verses to read, a quote from the writing that came from a Corrie ten Boom book (five in all according to the copyright page, but no chapter in the book is given the specific book of origin).  I will also include the highlighted quote, similar to an internet quotation, and I will end with the quoted prayer for that devotion.

Discussion

It was Betsie who told Corrie about the widow that Elijah helped, when God proclaimed that the flour and oil would never run out.

But then one day, Mien, one of the inmates who worked in the infirmary came with a bottle of “Yeast Compound.”  Inside the jar were vitamins that she had stolen and hidden in the jar.  When the jar was full she brought the jar back to the barracks in secret.  Everyone had a vitamin from the jar that night.

But Corrie, in typical Dutch fashion, not wanting to let anything go to waste, she tipped the jar of Davitamon oil and nothing came out.  The unbeliever would laugh and call it a fluke, a coincidence that the oil ran out when it was no longer needed, and Corrie did not realize how many drops were in the bottle to begin with.

But a believer sees that the oil should have run out long ago, and when another source was available, God’s miracle was no longer needed.  For the widow in 1 Kings 17, the oil and flour continued until the famine was over.

John wrote near the end of his gospel that Jesus did and said more things than had been written and all the books of the world could not hold it all.

I think that means, in part, that Jesus continues to do miracles here on this earth, not people who claim to be miracle workers.  And most of them are performed where the cameras are never rolling.

Closing Prayer

“Father, Your ways are so much higher than my own. Just when I think I understand even a bit of how You operate, You surprise me with something more magnificent. Forgive me for the times I’ve approached my circumstances or lack like an outsider who doesn’t have the blessing of Your provision. Instead, help me to remember that You are with me, You are working on my behalf and nothing is too hard for You.”

• Corrie ten Boom, God is my Hiding Place (prayer for Day 10, The God of Miraculous Provision)

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.