“We May Already Have All We Need…”


BIBLE READING: 2 Kings 3-5

                Have you ever experienced some type of financial strain that you feared would be so great that you could never be able to repay it?  It may have come in the form of an outrageous medical bill, an unexpected auto expense or home repair, or maybe it came in the form of losing a job and not having an income.  It only adds insult to injury to know that it doesn’t only affect you, but your spouse and your children.  At some point I think we all face some sort of financial strain in our lives.  Wouldn’t it be great if God had provided for us an example in Scripture that would allow us to see the light at the end of the tunnel of our financial stresses.  Within our daily reading we find such a passage.  In 2 Kings 4.1-7, the Bible tells a story of a woman who lost her husband.   It just so happens that this woman’s husband was a prophet of the Lord.  Upon his death, the woman was not able to continue to pay the bills that they had incurred while married.  In fact, her creditors were coming to collect and if she did not have enough to pay what she owed, she would be faced into selling herself and her children into slavery to pay the debt.   In the story, she pleads with Elisha seeking advice on what to do.  Elisha’s advice begins by asking her to focus, not on what she didn’t have, but on what she did have, which was one jar of oil.   Elisha asks her to go to her neighbors and borrow some empty bottles so she could see what the Lord would do for her.  Then he told her to go into her home and begin pouring what little oil she had for her vessel into one of the borrowed jars; then when that jar was full, she was to simply begin filling up the other jar, and then another and another.  To her surprise, she was able to fill up all the borrowed jars with what little oil she had.  She ended up with enough to sell the extra oil and use the money to pay her debts and then she would have enough to live on the rest.   Now I have to admit, it would be nice if Elisha had told me to go borrow a bunch of empty wallets and begin to fill them up with what little money I had in my own wallet, until I had enough money to pay off my mortgage, but that wasn’t at all the point.   Life will be very depressing for us if we only focus on what we don’t have as opposed to what we do.  The lesson that we can learn for this Old Testament miracle is this, count the blessings that you have instead of fretting about the ones you don’t.  In turn, you will see your cup is already running over with all that you need to live a full and prosperous life for the Lord.


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