by Dr. Chuck Jarvis, Senior Pastor
Valley View Community Church
Probably the two great burdens or problems of life are death and debts. We all experience the stress, pressure, discouragement and hopelessness that often accompany these trials. In the Bible, in II Kings 4:1-7, a story is told of a widow who experienced both of these tragedies in her life. Her husband had died leaving her with children to care for.
Besides the emotional hardship she undoubtedly experienced because of the death of her husband, she was also confronted with financial hardship. The need was so great that her creditors were threatening to take her sons and make them slaves as payment for the debt. She was not only faced with the pain of losing her husband, the threat of losing her sons to slavery was very real also.
In her desperation, she turned to the prophet of God, Elisha, for help. Elisha was eager to help, just as God is eager to help His children in need. However, his question “What do you have in the house?” was met first with a negative response from the widow. “I have nothing in the house but a jar of oil”, she says. This indicates that she felt there was nothing at her disposal to help remedy her situation. Even a jar of oil, though valuable to some extent, was of no consequence in her mind. There was no way it could be used to meet her great need.
Often, we too look at what we have as nothing important or significant when it comes to experiencing God’s enablement and blessing on our lives. But God doesn’t see it that way. Elisha’s response was, “yes, you do have something". That jar of oil which you think is so insignificant will be used of God to do a miracle in your life. He tells her to go gather as many additional jars as you can, borrow from your neighbors if you have to, and bring them all into your house and start pouring from your jar of oil into the other jars. What happened was a miracle. God multiplied the oil in her one jar to the point it filled all the other jars with oil. The abundance of oil she now possessed was so great she was able to sell it and pay all her debts. And there was enough money left over after the sale for her and her sons to live off of!
We should never underestimate the means by which God can manifest His wonderful power. What we think is of no consequence, is often what God wants us to offer to Him so He can use it for His glory. God never leaves us with nothing in our lives. He always gives us something, some gift, some ability to offer to Him. And when we offer it to Him in faith, He turns it into that which abundantly meets our need and demonstrates His wonderful work in our lives, bringing glory to Himself.
So “what do you have in the house”? Oh, I’m not talking about jars of oil necessarily, I’m talking about whatever it is that is available to you that God may want to use to bless you and meet that special need that you have. If nothing else, we have ourselves to offer to God. He can take a humble, obedient life and accomplish incredible things with it. You don’t have to be intelligent or talented or wealthy or any of those things. God just desires a willing heart that is committed to faith in His promises and that is expressed in obedient action. So look around you. See what you have. Nothing is too small or insignificant for God to use to meet your need, whatever it is, and perform unbelievable miracles in your life for His glory.
Comments