When I can’t keep myself…

In the book of 2 Kings 4:1-7 we read of a widow who had been left with much debt after the death of her husband. This was a dark picture of the day that she lived in: a widow struggled to even survive on her own. There was no Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. She relied on family and friends to make ends meet.

This woman had two sons but because of the amount of debt left by her late husband, the creditors were threatening to take her sons as slaves in payment.

She takes her dilemma to the prophet Elisha who immediately asks her what she had in her house and she replied that she only had a small jar of olive oil remaining. Period.

That’s all Elisha needed for his miracle and he instructs her to go borrow from her neighbors as many empty jars as she can get. He even encourages her in her quest by saying, “Don’t ask for just a few.”

Bring back as many as all three of you can carry and then go borrow some more!

The widow and her sons do as they are instructed and Elisha says, “Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” The sons begin to bring her the jars and she starts pouring oil from her original jar into the empty vessels.

When all the jars were full and no more empty ones remained…the oil stopped flowing.

Not one minute too early or too late, it stopped flowing when all the jars were FULL!

This woman could not keep herself. She had exhausted all attempts at paying off the creditors on her own and was in danger of losing the only two things she had left, her sons.

Psalm 50:15. “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

Surely she was being whispered about, of course her neighbors questioned what she was to do with so many empty vessels. But her faith in Elisha’s God kept her pressing forward, anticipating a miracle. In so doing, she had plenty of oil to sell to pay off all of her debts AND enough left over for her and her sons to live on. Olive oil was a necessity, used for so much more than just cooking. Its importance and monetary value was not lost to Elisha or his God.

How do you need to be KEPT today?

• Is it enough to know that the God of the universe knows where you are, every minute of every day and even the numbers of hair on your very head?
• Do we trust Him enough, resting in His promises that He will never leave us or forsake us?
• Or do we fret, like normal human beings, that everything is crashing around us and we will soon be defeated?

God wants to show us His keeping power! He loves to love us in the most precarious of situations. And when we rely on Him, trust in Him and get to the point that we KNOW He will be there regardless, we have turned a corner in our relationship. The love of God will keep you even when you feel as if you cannot keep yourself. His strength is perfect and all you need. Let Him overwhelm you today.

So, ask big!! Get plenty of vessels so the Lord can fill them and KEEP you by His might power, no matter your situation.