Tuesday, May 15, 2018

A widow, an act of obedience and a miracle

2 Kings 4:1-7 NLT
One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, "My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves." [2] "What can I do to help you?" Elisha asked. "Tell me, what do you have in the house?" "Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil," she replied. [3] And Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. [4] Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled." [5] So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. [6] Soon every container was full to the brim! "Bring me another jar," she said to one of her sons. "There aren't any more!" he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing. [7] When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, "Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over."

In this account of the widow, the prophet asks her "what do you have?" All she had was a small amount of oil. The prophet instructs her to gather jars and pour her small amount of oil into them. Notice that God required a small act of obedience. She needed to get jars from her friends and pour oil into them.

"And she did as she was told". These words stood out to me today. I've read this story often, but today this small sentence was powerful. It seemed such a small thing. A small act of obedience but this small act changed her life in a powerful way. It gave her and her family a future.

It is this small act of obedience that brings the miracle.

As I read this I wonder:

Are we really prepared to do what God asks of us?

Sometimes we want God to perform a great miracle for us when what he is actually asking for is a small act of obedience. A small act that uses what we already have. That small act of obedience can create the change and the miracle that sets us on the right trajectory for the testy of our lives.

A couple of questions.

What is already in our hands that God can use?

What small act of obedience is God asking us to carry out?

My challenge is to look at what we already have. View it as God sees it, offer it to him,  and act in obedience.

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