"When You're Hoping for a Miracle" in American Sign LanguageSample

How To Trust When Your Brook Dries Up
By Rick Warren

“After a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.” (1 Kings 17:7 NLT)

When Elijah was running from King Ahab in the book of 1 Kings, God sent him to the Kerith Ravine to hide. During that time, God provided for him in an unusual way. He sent ravens to bring food and drop it over the top of the ravine to Elijah, and there was a brook that provided water for Elijah to drink.

Then, 1 Kings 17:7 says that “after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land” (NLT).

Some of you right now are in a situation where the brook has dried up in your life. The money’s not there. The friend is gone. Something that was enjoyable is now empty. What was refreshing to you no longer satisfies. Something that delighted you now disappoints you.

What do you do when the brook dries up in your life?

You remember that brooks dry up to keep you from depending on the brook.

Elijah was in the ravine for a year. It would have been very easy for him to just forget God and focus on the birds and the brook, because they were supplying his needs. If you depend on a bird to drop food down to you every day week after week and month after month for a year, pretty soon you’re thinking less about God and you’re more concerned with the bird being on time.

God wants you to trust only in him. Anything you put before him or trust instead of him is a false idol. So sometimes God takes whatever you’re trusting in and turns it off or dries it up.

It’s human nature for us to trust the brook and the birds. What are the brook and the birds in your life? It’s whatever you’re looking for to give you happiness. Maybe it’s your husband, your job, or even sports. It may be your health.

Everything in your life is a gift from God. You may think that if God gives something to you, he has no right to take it back. That’s nonsense! God is sovereign, and he has the right to give and to take away.

If the brook has dried up in your life and you’re looking for a miracle, you need to learn to trust God only and say — no matter what he gives and takes away — “Blessed be his name!”

Talk It Over

What are the brook and the birds in your life? What are you trusting in to provide for you besides God?

What miracle have you been waiting on in your life?

How might God be testing your faith as you wait on that miracle?