Look At What You Have

By Cyndi

There is a great story in the Old Testament about Elisha where he took care of a poor widow woman. Creditors were about to enslave her sons because she didn’t have any money to pay them with and she didn’t know what to do. Of course she didn’t want to lose her sons, but the only other thing of value she had was a pot of oil, and that wasn’t much.

Elisha told her to go and get as many vessels as she could from anyone and everyone.  Go through all the cabinets, borrow from the neighbors, find anything that could hold something–a miracle was about to happen. So the widow woman did. Elisha told her to pour the oil that she had into all the vessels, and as she did, the oil continued to flow from one vessel to another until there were no more vessels to fill. The oil stopped flowing then and she was able to sell it and pay off all her debts.

This is a great story and there’s a great lesson to learn from this. The first thing Elisha had asked the woman was, “What do you have?” All she had was a pot of oil. Then she was asked to find other resources, other vessels that could be used. Now look at this–she had a money problem, right? But when I’m looking to God to solve my money problems, I’m not necessarily looking for resources to do it myself. Most of the time I want liquid assets–cash or checks–and God wants me to look for raw materials.

As I look for the available resources–what I have, what I can borrow–God is able to do a miracle for me. I know He’s able to put dollar bills on trees, but normally He wants me to do my part, and He will do His. So when you have a need, any need, look around and see what you have. Find some raw materials He can work with and trust in His love to provide.