Today’s Reading 2 Kings 4-5
Focal Scripture: 2 Kings 4:6 “When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”
When you look around what do you see? Some people see nothing but the negative. They only see the problems and do not see the solutions. Other people see a situation and only see solutions no matter how terrible the problems might be to them or others. It is a skill to be able to see things for what they are but not settle for that reality. We see this all the time in our personal lives and especially in our spiritual lives. People will focus on the negative so much, they will stay there and not take the problem for what it really is, an opportunity.
In today’s reading we see the widow overwhelmed. She has no money. The creditors are coming after her and want to take from her even more. She has lost her husband and she is a single mother. She needs help. Elisha asks her what she has in the house and her response is “I only have oil.” She didn’t know it but that is all she would need, because God was going to be with her the entire time. She sent for containers and they were all filled. In an act of faith she told her son to find more containers. She didn’t waiver, get frustrated, or even get overwhelmed. She trusted that the man of God was in line with what God was doing.
We have much we can learn from this widow. First, is that we need to trust the word of the Lord. When he says he will do something it will happen, no questions asked. Next, we need to trust the man of God who speaks the word of God. (If that man is not surrendered to the Lord, he doesn’t need to be listened to) Next, when God says he will accomplish something it will be bigger than we expected. This is what happens to the widow. She is getting oil and getting so much she has to send her son out to get more containers. God doesn’t accomplish tasks halfway when he works. When God moves in your life it will be overwhelming to you in some capacity.
I want to pause her and make sure you do not think I am talking about God just giving us whatever we want when we want it to happen. Because that is not the case. What I am addressing is that when God shows up we need to expect big things from him in our personal lives and our spiritual lives. These big event that we experience are changing us to make us more like his son. They are chipping away our unbelief. This is what the story of the widow is all about, after all. The widow is having her faith built and we get to see it in real time. She learns how to trust God and the prophet of God. She learns how to expect God to work in mighty ways, even if she didn’t know what was going to happen.
The challenge for us today is that we need to believe that God can still work. He still moves in the lives of people. God desires a personal relationship with us in a large way. God wants to move in our spiritual lives not to make us popular but to make us holy.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 2 Kings 6-8
