Caked?

 “You buy our soup, I’ll buy our cake,” I suggested to a friend when we met for lunch.

She went to order the soup while I bagged a table.

When cake-time rolled round, I stood up to go and order.

The counter was not near our table, but my friend told me that any cake would be fine for her; she’d let me choose.

“Is there any type of cake you don’t like?” I asked, a little nervous about the responsibility I’d just been given.

“No,” she replied, and we laughed.

There was a queue which, as I joined it at the back, meant I could not see the cakes.

No head start on choosing, then.

As the line shuffled slowly forward, I could make out a sign on the cake counter:

Nope, not today. Caked.

It must mean they’ve run out of a particular cake, I thought.

When I reached the front of the queue, I realised that it meant they’d run out of almost all the cakes. They were, as the sign had declared, caked.

Elijah, in 1 Kings 19, was caked. He was running on empty.

He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.

“I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life...”

1 Kings 19:4

‘Nope, not today. Caked.’

Perhaps some of us feel the same.

Life is tough.

Struggles come.

We’ve run out of almost everything.

Every day feels like a marathon.

We are running on empty.

Nope, not today. Caked.

The angel of the Lord…. said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”

1 Kings 19:7

God provided Elijah with food to strengthen him in his ‘caked’ state.

He will provide for us, too.

The faithful love of the LORD never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:22,23

New mercies each day.

Let’s look out for them.

Where will you see God’s faithfulness today?

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

And let’s not miss the next verse in the Lamentations passage:

I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance (possession/share/portion);

therefore, I will hope in him!”

Lamentations 3:24

Father God,

When we feel caked, remind us that You understand.

When we’ve run out of almost everything, You care.

You don’t rush us on but, as You did with Elijah, You gently encourage us to see Your Provision.

As we recognise Your never-ending mercies to us, in every day, may we be strengthened through joy as we hope in You.

Amen.