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.
She has a problem, an overwhelming problem, but God has a plan. But all she has to do is follow God’s plan and she will realize God’s promise. Can I tell somebody this morning to be not dismayed what ever be tide, God will take care of you? But it begins by deciding to go with what you got.
So, it started with this jar of oil that the woman in our text already has in the house. What is it about this “jar of oil” that she has in the house? If we were to take little trip into the original language of the text, it helps us with answer the question.
The Hebrew understanding makes it clear, that both the jar and the oil in it were special. This jar (in the Hebrew is ah-SOOCHK – a word used only one time in all of the Old Testament, which is formed from the root word meaning “to anoint” this is the contained Holy anointing oil, that special mixture of oil and spices the recipe for which was set forth in Exodus 30.
This Holy anointing oil was to be used solely, and exclusively by priests as part of worship. And please know that under the Old Testament Law, the misuse of the sacred oil was punishable by death.
This widow had a little jar of Holy, anointing oil – but the question is where did it come from, and remember: only the priests could have it or use it, so then her deceased husband must have been a priest. Remember her husband was a prophet (that’s why she went to see Elisha in the first place. So, in order for him to have a jar of anointing oil, her husband also had to have been a priest.
The widow had sold everything she owned except for this little jar of oil. As desperate as her situation was, she would have sold the oil, except that it was too little in quantity to be of any value and her creditor wouldn’t have taken it anyway because the creditor had no use for the sacred anointing oil.
The truth of the matter is that she didn’t have much oil, and what she had was practically worthless so she thought.
So she stashed it away in the house: as a keepsake, perhaps as reminder of her husband’s priestly legacy. That little jar of oil was all that she had and yet with God what she had was more than enough.
Don’t miss this! What the woman needed to confront the challenges that she is facing is already in her possession. It’in the house. All she needed to do, is to Go with What She’s Got!
Yes, she has a problem, but God already has a plan that will lead her to God’s promise.
Her path to victory in the face of overwhelming odds begins, when she takes inventory of what she already has.
Notice that Elijah does not ask about what she once had. Instead Elijah asks, what do you have in the house? You all verb tense matters. Hear the question posed by the prophet: he asked her what do you have in the house?
He is reminding her and us today that your past is not relevant when it comes to the future that God has planned for you. (Somebody ought to shout right there.
What do you have in your house, now? After all of the challenges that you have faced what do you have left, you are overwhelmed and at the end of your rope, what do you have in your house. That’s the question that Elisha poses to the widow. It is the question we must answer when we faced with life’s problems. What do you have, now.
LISTEN: don’t worry about the things that you have lost. If it’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t worry about if he or she is gone, God does not need him, or her, or it to bless you, he doesn’t need things for God to fulfill God’s plan for your life!
Stop running behind people and things and stuff that is gone. If it’s gone, let it stay gone. What you need is already in the house. What you need is already in your possession.
What the widow had (past tense) is immaterial. What matters is what she has now. After death, after the divorce, after layoff, after sickness, what do you have in the house? You still got something. Because the Lord never leaves us with nothing.
After all that she has been through, we can see through the lens of the text, that what she has in the house is enough to see her through. That’s the spiritual principle that God is trying to get us to embrace.
And that’s the beauty of God’s loving care for us. God makes certain that we have what we need. If you need it, God’s got it. In fact, if you’re in relationship with God, you’re already set up.
God had already supplied everything that the woman needed, even in the aftermath of her husband’s death and her family falling into financial ruin.
You’ve got to see the picture. Her husband dead, bill collectors calling, it looks like there’s no way out. Everything she had counted on is out the window, and now her sons are about to be sold, the situation is dire, yet God has given her everything she needs to make it through. What I’m trying to help us see is the message, in the miracle of the text. If you Go with What You Got, you will discover that you have everything you need.
It begins by taking inventory. By pausing to think about what God has given to you.
The next time you feel inadequate like you don’t have what you need, ask yourself the question that Elijah asked the woman in our text:
The woman in the text took inventory and discovered that she had a little jar of anointing oil, and that was all she needed. First, she had to take inventory and then she had to do some investigation. Because He said in v.3, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few.
The woman had to go out and talk to her neighbors. When she did, she discovered that they had some empty jars. Remember this woman, who has a little jar of sacred, anointing oil in her possession, is the widow of a priest.
In following the plan, and in order to realize God’s promise, she had to go and investigate to find out that the thing in her house that she had overlooked was (actually) quite valuable.
She had what she needed, but she didn’t value it. So God had to show her that if she would just Go with What She’s Got!
Some of us have what we need to make it, but we’ve missed the opportunity to see God multiply it because we won’t put it to use in the way God has designated.
Watch the text. The woman only had a little oil in a little jar to begin with. It was all that she needed, but she needed to put it to work according to God’s instruction in order to have enough of it to make a difference, She started out with a little bit of oil in a small jar, it was too little to be of use to anyone for any purpose, until she yielded it to God’s plan.
If you want to see God do the miraculous with what He has given you, you need to take what God has given and First, Take Inventory – know what you have “in the house” (what God has given you)
Next, you have to Investigate find out who needs what you have, then the next step in the plan is to Employ, engage particapte in the plan.
Elisha said (Then go in, and shut the door behind you and your children, and start pouring into all these vessels; when each is full, set it aside.”…When the vessels were full then the oil stopped flowing. – v. 4-6)
What do you mean, “Employ the plan of God”? I mean you got to put in the work. Watch the text. What did Elisha tell the woman to do once she completed the investigation and got her hands on her neighbors’ vessels. Verse 4 says that Elisha told the woman: “Go in shut the door and start pouring.
Listen: Sometimes you’ve got to go in and shut the door, and leave all of the negativity on the outside. Shut the door and leave the naysayers to themselves. Shut the door and hear what the Lord is saying to you. If we want experience the blessing of God, sometimes we need to learn how to go in shut the door.
The miracle of the text is that God allowed the oil to keep flowing until all the vessels were filled.
When She came and told the man of God, what had happen he said, Go sell the oil and pay your debts.
So, I just stopped by to remind you that in the tough places in life, you can make it because you are never alone.
The song writer said I’ve seen the lightning flashing. And I’ve heard the thunder roll. I’ve felt sins breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. Oh, but I heard the voice of Jesus, telling me still to fight on. In fact I heard Hebrews 13:5 say that He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me alone.
The Lord’s Presence is the reminder of His promise that He will supply ever need in. Please follow God’s plan and experience the promises of God.
Because He won’t leave you. He will be right there to guide you!
Hold on. Hold out. And God will hold you up.
Don’t breakdown. Just go with what you got. What do you have? You’ve got Jesus and He will see you through.
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take Him at His Word. Just to rest upon His promise. Just to know thus saith the Lord. And I’m so glad, that I have learned to trust Him. Precious Jesus, Savior, and Friend. And I know that Thou art with me. And you will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus. How I trust Him.
When all else fails. When all else has gone you’ve still got a little jar of oil. And God’s presence will see you through. Just go with what you got.
I’m reminded of a story about a boy that was going down to the river for a little swim. As he was leaving the house his father said, his father said son be careful, because the river looks fair and sparkling, but there is an ugly undercurrent beneath that may be too much for you, and it could be dangerous. But just in case you find yourself in trouble and you can’t find nothing to grab on to, just know that you can call on the Lord.
Well it is said that his son went down to the river and the river looked so smooth and peaceful that he ventured out, after a while it felt so good that he when out a little farther. His companions, who were swining with him, warned him to be careful. But he called back and said, "I can swim; there is no danger." So he ventured out still farther. But soon he was heard calling for help. The undercurrent had final overcame him. He frantically cried for assistance, but it was all in vain, because he was to far out. I heard that He went down. His swining skills had fell him, there was were no branches to grab on to, but he finally remembered what his father told him. His father told him to always to go with what you got and that was to call on the Lord.
He begin to call on the Lord and the waters started to smooth out. I can hear him call on the name of Jesus. And he finally were able to make it to shore. And someone this morning maybe down and out, just call on Jesus. Someone may be going through, just call on Jesus. Someone may be like this widow women but I dare you to call on Jesus. In other words, go with what you got and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
