01/12/2025
🌿 Reflection on 1 Kings 17
For Someone Living With HIV
1 Kings 17 is a chapter about droughts, hidden seasons, unexpected provision, and life returning where death seemed certain.
And in many ways, it mirrors the emotional and spiritual terrain of living with HIV.
1. The Drought — When Life Changes Overnight
Just like Elijah declared a drought, an HIV diagnosis often feels like a sudden dryness in the soul…
A moment where the life you knew shifts.
Plans pause. Emotions overwhelm. Faith is shaken.
But the drought in the story wasn’t the end.
It was the beginning of a new kind of relationship with God — one where He proves Himself faithful in ways you’ve never seen before.
2. The Brook Cherith — Private Battles, Private Provision
Elijah hid by the brook, cared for by God in quiet, unseen ways.
Living with HIV often means carrying private battles:
fear of stigma
shame that doesn’t belong to you
fatigue
the weight of being misunderstood
Yet, just like the brook, God meets you in your hidden places.
He sends “ravens” — unexpected people, unexpected strength, unexpected moments of peace — to sustain you.
And when the brook dries up, when old support disappears, when you feel alone again…
It is not abandonment.
It is transition.
3. The Widow of Zarephath — God in Your Emptiness
The widow had nothing left.
She was making her last meal.
But God used her emptiness as the ground for a miracle.
There are days in the HIV journey where you feel emotionally or spiritually empty —
like you have nothing left to give.
Yet God says:
“Give Me what you have. Even if it’s small. Even if it’s fragile. I will multiply it.”
Your strength may not look like everyone else’s,
but God honours the strength you do have.
Your resilience becomes the place where miracles grow.
4. The Widow’s Son — Life After What Felt Like the End
The child dies, and Elijah cries out to God.
Life returns.
This part of the story speaks directly to anyone living with HIV:
God is the One who revives what feels dead.
Faith that felt dead.
Joy that felt dead.
Confidence that felt dead.
Dreams that felt dead.
Relationships that felt dead.
Your diagnosis was not the end of your story —
God keeps breathing life into the parts of you that you thought would never rise again.
🌈 Final Word: You Are Not Your Drought
1 Kings 17 teaches this beautifully:
Droughts don’t define you. Loss doesn’t define you. HIV doesn’t define you.
What defines you is:
God’s daily provision
Your courage
The miracle of life inside you
The strength to keep rising
The calling God has placed on your journey
God meets you at every stage — the drought, the dryness, the fear, the transition, the breakthrough, the resurrection.
Your story is still unfolding.
And God is still writing. ❤️
