There was a famine in the land during the life of Isaac, and every farmer around knew it. The ground was dry and cracked. The smart move, the safe move, was to pack up and head to Egypt where the food was. But God told Isaac to stay put. Don't run. Sow here, and trust Me.

So Isaac planted seed in the dry, cracked ground during a famine. That seed was his food supply, but Isaac put it in the dirt anyway, and the Lord multiplied it a hundredfold. His neighbors were starving, but Isaac was thriving. The Philistines got so jealous they ran him off. That's what obedience in hard times can look like — so blessed it makes people uncomfortable.

Isaac wasn't the last one to face that test. Centuries later, the whole land of Israel was under drought and famine because of the choices of King Ahab and Jezebel. Those two seemed to honor any god around except the Almighty. As a result, it didn't rain for years. The people couldn't plant crops in the dry dust, so a shortage of food naturally followed.

During this drought and famine, the Lord sent Elijah to stay with a poor widow in Zarephath who only had a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar. She had planned to make a small cake for her and her son's last meal. After that, they would starve to death together. While she was out gathering sticks to build a fire to cook their last meal on, she met Elijah, the prophet.

What happened next is totally against what we think our Lord would do. Instead of coming through at the last minute and miraculously providing food for the poor widow, He asked her to give Him something first. To share her last bit of food with a total stranger.

Would God really ask a poor, starving widow with no income to share the little she had with someone else? Apparently so! It is all about trusting Him to provide for us. No one is exempt from "Give, and it will be given to you." Not even the poor widow with two mites, nor the widow in this story.

Elijah told her to first make him a small cake out of what she had and then some for her and her son, because the bin of flour and the jug of oil would not run out until it rained on the earth. When she humbly did as he asked, the little bit of food she had fed them all abundantly for the next three years. The supply did not run out.

Fast forward to the New Testament and the pattern holds. A crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children, had followed Jesus out into a remote place. It was getting late. The disciples wanted to send them home to find food. Jesus said feed them. They had five loaves of bread and two fish. That was it. One boy's lunch.

But they gave what they had to Jesus, and He took it, gave thanks, broke it, and started handing it out. Thousands of people ate until they were full, and there were twelve baskets of leftovers. Jesus didn't create food from nothing that day. He took what someone released to Him and multiplied it.

That's the pattern I see throughout Scripture. Isaac had seed and sowed it into the dry ground. The widow had a jar and gave the first of it to God's prophet. The boy had a lunch with him, and gave it to Jesus. In every case, God did the multiplication. But in every case, somebody had to let go of what they were holding first.

That verse isn't only about money. It's about seed, flour, fish, and computer parts too. One Christmas, we took a pile of leftover parts — odds and ends that were sitting in boxes going nowhere — and built computers for widows who didn't have one. It was what we had to give, because we sure didn't have money that year. So we gave away what we had. A month later, somebody donated ten thousand dollars worth of enterprise-level firewalls and servers to us. Brand new equipment we could never have bought. We released old parts and God returned enterprise gear. Same principle. Different century. Different supply. Same God.

Our God is a sustaining God. When trouble comes on the earth, He is more than able to take care of those who listen to His voice. "The Lord has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7). So do not fear the circumstances, though they appear overwhelming.

The LORD took care of Isaac in famine country. He took care of Elijah and the widow even when the land they lived in was under judgment. He fed over five thousand people with a boy's lunch. Stay close to the Lord. Release what He asks you to release. It may not come in the form of something new, but what you already have may go a lot further than you think.

God multiplies what you give Him. Not what you hold onto.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Heavenly Father, the hard times are real, and we feel them, but so is Your faithfulness. Please give us the courage of Isaac to plant in dry ground. Give us the trust of the widow to hand You the first of what little we have. Help us to release what You are asking for, and to believe that You are able to multiply it. We will not fear the famine. We will not run to Egypt. We will stay close to You and trust You to sustain us. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!