“Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.
Then… pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
…Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another.
Soon every container was full to the brim!“
2 Kings 4v3-5
It’s no question there seems to be swirling fear about what it costs to live these days. Recently my mind whirled on the shocking gas prices, insane food costs, seeing our normal grocery stores missing staple items, the cost of living, and all the questions each of those bring. I could feel fear and panic rise.
“How can we make it?”
“Will we have enough?”
“How can we possibly live within our means?”
“Will we be able to leave an inheritance for our kids?”
And then this thought interrupted the others, a gift from heaven, “If He can do it for them, He can do it for us“.
And I can’t stop thinking about the story of the endless oil and the desperate widow. Every day, all week, I think about it.
Do you remember that story? The widow was desperate. She had nothing left, no money or means, and creditors were chasing her down, threatening to take her sons if she didn’t pay the overwhelming debt she owed. It was an awful, dire spot to be in. I can’t imagine.
She must have felt stuck, overwhelmed, out of solutions, hopeless about their situation. I’ve been there. You feel this, too? Have you noticed those things trying to creep in, consume your mind, try to scare you?
But the widow asks Elisha what to do, and he asks her what she does have?
She responds, “One flask of oil.” He tells her to go to her neighbors and friends and gather as MANY flasks and jars as possible, go home, close the door, and start filling jars.
So the woman and her sons do just as Elijah said. And the oil pours into the first jar, and pours, and pours, and pours. Until they had not a single jar left in the house to fill. And the widow who just moments ago had nothing to give, took that oil and sold the jars and flasks, and used the money to pay all her debts and live on what was leftover.
“If He can do it for them, He can do it for us.”
If God can bring them provision in miraculous, unheard of ways, overflowing ways, He can do it for us too. AND YOU.
Because the truth is:
He does not let His children go hungry.
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
His resources, His ways, are endless.
And it wasn’t just the widow. God brought miraculous provision in dire situation many, many times.
~It was also God’s children with ever-coming manna in the desert (Exodus 16).
~It was Joseph storing massive amounts of food for the years extreme famine (Genesis 41v54).
~It was the widow whose flour and olive oil constantly refilled for bread during the drought (1 Kings 17v13-16).
~It was Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes for thousands (Mark 6v41-44).
It was not a one time deal.
God is the Provider. He is the Waymaker. He is the Good Father and Kind Care Taker.
So we throw all our trust and faith in Him, and not in our own ability to create resources or work or be self-sufficient.
And when the fear and questions and panic try to knock, we can stand on these testimonies:
If He can do it for them, He can do it for us.
God’s strategies and resources are endless.
His heart towards us is always good.
And He *always* makes a way in the desert.
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