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Want More Blessings? You Control the Flow! by Marnie Pehrson Click here for more details.
Then Elisha said to her, "Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full." So the widow had her sons go and borrow vessels from her neighbors. Afterwards, she and her sons went into the house, shut the door and she began pouring the oil from her pot into each of the vessels. When all the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me yet a vessel." He answered her, "There is not a vessel more." And the oil stayed or stopped flowing. Then she came to Elisha and told him what had happened and he said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest." (2 Kings 4:1-7) There are several interesting lessons we can learn from this story. The Lord Works With What We've Got First, when the widow woman was in dire straights, the Lord (working through the prophet Elisha) had her evaluate her assets what did she have? She had one pot of oil. It wasn't much, but it was enough for God to work a miracle. By putting together all the woman had with the miracle of the Lord, she had enough to pay her debt and have leftover to live on. It's the same with us. We may sometimes feel we have very few assets maybe meager talents or abilities or limited resources, but it really doesn't matter to the Lord. He can take whatever we have no matter how meager or insufficient -- and multiply it in a miraculous way so that we can overcome life's obstacles and challenges. We Can't Do It Alone Besides the widow woman, the Lord, Elisha and the woman's sons, who else helped perform this miracle? Why, her neighbors did! She had to have neighbors who were willing to let her borrow the extra vessels. What if she hadn't had neighbors to lean on in her time of need? What if she had been too proud to borrow from them? Part of the Lord's plan is that we help each other. When we through our pride refuse to receive help from others, we limit the Lord's ability to bless us. Faith Precedes the Miracle Elisha told the woman to do something that seemed rather silly. Who would think that by pouring out the oil from a pot into other vessels that there would be any more oil than when you started? Many people might have thought, "Well, that pot will hold about four gallons, so I need four 1-gallon vessels." But Elisha had said, "Borrow not a few." So, the widow followed Elisha's commands thoroughly and sent her sons away to gather as many vessels as they could. Sometimes it takes a leap of faith that flies in the face of reason to believe that our paltry assets, experience, resources and abilities can be magnified by such simple means as the Lord requires. How many times when the Lord has asked you to do something, have you thought, "Who me? I'm not talented enough I'm not good enough Why doesn't He ask someone better than me to do this?" But the widow woman didn't do this. Logic didn't play a role here. Sometimes we need to set aside our human reasoning and logic and just take a leap of faith. We Control the Flow of Blessings Let's say that the woman and her sons gathered 100 vessels and the oil poured out to fill all 100 pots and then stopped when she ran out of pots. What if the woman had gathered 500 pots or 1,000 pots? Then the oil would have filled 500 or 1,000 would it not? I don't know about you, but if I were the widow and her sons, I'd be wishing I'd figured out a way to gather more pots! The widow woman literally controlled the amount of oil she had to resell by how many pots she and her sons had gathered. We too, control the flow of the Lord's blessings by what we're willing to allow into our lives and receive. In his excellent little book, The Prayer of Jabez, Bruce Wilkinson tells the following story. "Mr. Jones dies and goes to heaven. Peter is waiting at the gates to give him a tour. Amid the splendor of golden streets, beautiful mansions, and choirs of angels that Peter shows him, Mr. Jones notices an odd-warehouse-looking building He asks to see inside, but Peter hesitates. 'You really don't want to see what's in there,' he tells the new arrival . Finally Peter relents. When the apostle opens the door, Mr. Jones almost knocks him over in his haste to enter. It turns out that the enormous building is filled with row after row of shelves, floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly with white boxes tied in red ribbons. 'These boxes all have names on them' Mr. Jones muses aloud. Then turning to Peter he asks, 'Do I have one.' 'Yes you do.' Peter tries to guide Mr. Jones back outside. 'Frankly,' Peter says, 'if I were you ' But Mr. Jones is already dashing toward the 'J' aisle to find his box. Peter follows, shaking his head. He catches up with Mr. Jones just as he is slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping the lid. Looking inside Jones has a moment of instant recognition, and he lets out a deep sigh like the ones Peter has heard so many times before. Because there in Mr. Jones's white box are all the blessings that God wanted to give to him while he was on earth but Mr. Jones had never asked." (Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez, p.25-27) How many blessings are you and I missing out on because we have never asked? Never even thought to ask? Or maybe thought to ask but stopped because it seemed so impossible? With God, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37). We control the blessings we receive by our willingness to be obedient, to ask, to accept help from others, to act on faith, and to prepare to receive.
The author may be contacted at http://www.MarniePehrson.com
webmaster@shelovesgod.com.
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Marnie L. Pehrson is a wife, mother of 6, founder of SheLovesGod.com, and author of both inspirational Christian titles such as |
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