What DO you have IN YOU that God can BLESS?
April 15 Bible
Reading: 2 Kings Chapters 4-6
What DO you have IN YOU that God can BLESS?
A certain woman of the wives of the sons of
the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is
dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is
coming to take my two sons to be his slaves." So Elisha said to her,
"What shall I do for you? Tell me, what
do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil." (2 Kings 4:1-2)
Elisha, who
had until recently been pouring water on the hands of Elijah (2 Kings 3:11b),
was now a full-fledged prophet of Israel doing an extraordinary ministry being
propelled by the double portion of
the Spirit that God had anointed his master Elijah. What we read in this
passage is just another day in the
life of this powerful servant of God. He is approached by the wife of one of
the sons of the prophets, who had just experienced a crisis in her life. Her
husband, one of the unnamed servants-at-large of Elisha, had died without
setting his house in order (or, taking
any life insurance), so that his wife and his two sons would not suffer as
a result of his demise. While he was alive, this man had raked up a huge debt
since he had borrowed a large amount of money from a certain creditor (loan shark) and had not paid
the debt back in due time. Now that he was dead, his widow was afraid that this
creditor would come and take her two
innocent sons to be his slaves!
What did Elisha do under these
circumstances? Let’s
pay attention to what Elisha asked this widow: “What do you have in the house?” Elisha did not create any wealth
for this widow out of thin air like a magician. Instead, Elisha directed her
attention to think about what she had currently in her possession. Without a
moment’s hesitation, this widow replied that all she had with her was a jar of
oil. As we read the next verses in this passage (vv. 3-7), Elisha asked the
widow to borrow as many vessels as she could from all her neighbors and friends
to contain the blessings that God was about to pour out in her life through an
extraordinary miracle. Then, she and her sons should get inside a room, shut
the door for privacy, and then by faith
start to pour out the oil in her jar into all the empty containers. God would then
perform a miracle of replication, and the jar would tap into an unlimited
unseen source of oil that only God could
create. She would be able to fill all the vessels in the room with oil, and
then use that oil to pay off her debt
so that she and her sons could live in plenty
in a land stricken by poverty.
Many of us
today are living in spiritual poverty not knowing that God is more than willing to bless us with all
spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3). Many are hounded by Satan and living in a perpetual
state of fear and trepidation being constantly reminded of their weakness and
shame. In this context, the question that we need to ask ourselves is: “What do I have in me that God can bless?”
Each of us has unique spiritual abilities in our lives that God has
specifically gifted us. There is no one
in this world that God has not gifted even ‘one
talent’ (see Matthew 25:14-30). We
need to do a thorough soul-searching & discover our ministry gifting today?
Then, we should lay our ‘talent’
before God and ask Him to bless us so
that God can make us a blessing in the lives of others!
Let us recall God asking Moses one day: "What is that in your hand?" (Exodus 4:2), or Jesus asking His disciples: "How many loaves do you have? Go and see" (Mark 6:38). God will then use what we have to bless others around us and ourselves through a miracle. Are you willing to be blessed by God today so that you can be a blessing to others in your sphere of influence?
