An ah-ha moment!

I plan to go into more detail about what I've been studying in I Kings in another blog, but I was just so exited about a correlation I found today that I had to write about it.
At the Sunday school class at my church we have been studying I Corinthians. We have specifically been studying the spiritual gifts.
Last week we discussed Chapter 13 v. 1- 3.
" If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing.

Very simply put, without love I give nothing, I am nothing, and I gain nothing.

We can substitute the name of Christ here for love, so without Christ, I give nothing, I am nothing, and I gain nothing.

Let me flip over now to I Kings CH. 17:2-24.

Here we find Elijah in the desert near a brook that dries up. Then he is sent to a widow with nothing to share with him. Then the widows son dies. Of course, God intervenes in each event, but without God,
Elijah would have had nothing but a dried up brook, the widow would have had nothing to share, and the young man would've been dead.
This applies to us as well,
without God we are nothing, we have nothing to offer or share, and we are dead.


The hopeful part of this a-ha moment of course is for those of us who know Christ, we are something(children of God), we can do and give something (all things through Christ who strengthens us) and we gain something (eternal life).

It is always fun to see how the bible is so interwoven between the Old and the New Testament and how it directs us to Christ when we are willing to take the directions.