Go With What You Got

From time to time all of us get overwhelmed, we feel inadequate, as if what we have is not enough. Life has a way of saddling us with feelings of disappointment, disillusionment, disaffection, and depression. This seems to be our reality from time to time and sometimes, it seems as if this is it.

After a long week of wrestling with God, I’ve stopped by on assignment to remind us all of a truth that I re-learned recently and that is this: what you have is more than enough to move you from where you are, to where God has destined for you to be. All you have to do is to make up your mind to Go with What You Got.

I know that sometimes it seems like you can’t make it, sometimes it feels like when you take 1 step forward, you are pushed 2 steps backward, but I dare you to trust God, and to just and go with what you got.

The fact Of the matter is that God has already placed what you need in your possession. In the words of the morning’s text, what you need is in the house in your house. There no need to stress yourself out, or worry yourself into a depression. Just remember to go with what you got. God has already promised to supply our every need. Know that our God is the Good Shepherd. That means that everything we need is already at our disposal, we need to engage life’s problems with God’s plan and move forward to receive the promises God.

It’s in this morning’s text, that we see everything that she need to deal

with life’s challenges was in the house, readily available. Watch the text. As we login to 2nd Kings 4:1-7 on the Skype of your sanctified imagination.

We are joined in the office of The Reverend Doctor Elisha. He's talking with a woman who is a recently widowed mother of two young children. Her husband had been a member of the Minister Conference but now he's dead, and she is left to raise their two sons on her own. To add to the burden of her grief, she recently discovered that she’s bankrupt.

She has used up all the insurance proceeds and sold all of the household assets, trying to raise enough money to keep the creditors at bay, but the problem is, it’s just isn’t enough.

She is overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life, she is stunned, flabbergasted, and astonished by her troubles. Her husband is dead, and she’s broke.

A bill collector told her that if she didn’t pay the debt in full by the 1st of the month, he was going to take her two children and sell them into slavery, using the proceeds from the sale to pay off the remainder of the debt, an action that was perfectly legal in the time and culture of our text.

She is now at the end of her rope. She feels inadequate to the challenges. Elisha listens patiently as she tells her story. And when she finishes, as he looks her in the eyes, and I can speculate him saying, I’m, sorry, ma’am. I don’t have any influence with the bank. So, what would you have me do? I can’t pay off the debt (myself), my hands are tied. I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”

I can imagine her picking up her pocketbook and prepares to leave, and then Elisha gets a inspired insight from God insight, and asks her a question that would change her life: he ask her ma’am “What do you have in the house?,” He asks her with hope, and the widow replies, “I have nothing in the house, save a jar of oil.” And so begins the miracle story that reminds us that even when life leaves you feeling inadequate and overcomed, you ought to remember to go with what you got.

The widow in our text follows Elijah’s instruction, and in so doing discovers that what she needs is already “in the house.”

Yes, she’s got a problem, but God has a plan. She has an issue, but God has the solution. She has a setback, but God is setting her up for a comeback.

Watch the text. Elijah asked her, “What do you have in the house?” And she answered, “nothing, save a jar of oil. Which is translated execpt” and you have got to know that there is something in the except. All God need is your expect and he can work with that.

She had sold everything that she owned, except for a little jar of oil, and who would want that? Because if it had any street value, she would’ve sold it when she sold everything else.

She said all I have is a jar of oil. Then, Elijah discloses the plan of God: he said “Go outside and borrow as many vessels as you can from your neighbors, then go home and pour the oil from your jar into the borrowed vessels, and when each of them is filled, set them aside and report back to me.