June 22nd deliberatePeople. post by Phil and Heather Joel + today's dP reading schedule:
Friday, June 22, 2012 2 Kings 3:1-4:17 / Acts 14:8-28 / Psalm 140:1-13 / Proverbs 17:22
Standout Verse: 2 Kings 4:1-7
The story of Elisha, the widow, and the jar of oil
This is an amazing story of God’s faithful, unfailing provision. This woman found herself in extremely difficult circumstances brought on by the death of her husband. The threat of having her children taken from her loomed large due to her terrible financial situation and lack of assets. The only thing she had left was a small jar of oil.
Elisha’s first question to her was “what DO you have?” He knew that God wasn’t a mean, un-caring God who had abandoned this desperate woman. He knew that God wanted to show Himself powerful in this woman’s life in a way that only He could do. As she stepped out in faith and obeyed the word of the Lord delivered through Elisha, God multiplied the little jar of oil in a massive way. In the end, the woman and her sons found themselves with an abundance of oil – enough to pay off all their debts and live on for a long time to come.
This story is so fun! When we find ourselves in times of desperation, when our resources are at an all time low, we need to train ourselves to default to thinking on God’s TRUTH instead of falling for the lies the enemy wants to use to breed hopelessness and discouragment causing us to think God doesn’t care about us or our circumstances.
GOD’S TRUTH is this:
1. HE IS GOOD
2. HE HAS A PLAN FOR US
3. HE CARES ABOUT US DEEPLY
4. HE WILL WALK WITH US THROUGH EVERY SITUATION EVERY STEP OF THE WAY (He will NEVER leave us or forsake us)!
5. HE WILL GIVE US GREAT STRATEGIES IF WE WILL PUT OUR TRUST IN HIM AND BE EXPECTANT FOR THE THINGS HE WANTS TO SHOW US AND THE WAYS HE WANTS TO GROW US!
6. HIS WAYS AND THOUGHTS ARE HIGHER THAN OURS. Sometimes our human minds can’t figure out what He is doing exactly, but we can rest confidently knowing that what He is doing behind the scenes is ALWAYS in order to grow our faith in Him by way of showing us His loving, miraculous, creative power!
The FIRST thing we should ask ourselves when we are in a situation where are resources are super low is this, “OKAY, WHAT DO I HAVE?” This requires us to stop looking around, lamenting over all the things we DON’T have and fix our minds on what we DO have (i.e. what God HAS provided). As we do this, God gets excited and says, “Alright, now we can get this party started!”
As we look to Him EXPECTANTLY for His strategies and say to Him, “What do You want to do Lord…I’m excited to see what You have planned for this situation”, HE WILL SHOW US THINGS, GIVE US GREAT IDEAS WE COULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF ON OUR OWN, and BLOW OUR MINDS AS HE TAKES SOMETHING SMALL and/or INSIGNIFICANT AND MAKES IT GROW AND MULTIPLY FOR OUR BENEFIT AND FOR HIS GLORY! FUN STUFF!!!
Reader Comments (1)
Awesome. I will put that into practice: what DO I have? Great way to look at situations--thx :)
II Kings 3:15-19
"Then Elisha called for a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him..." Wow, I didn't know this story was in here! We all know that God speaks through music--'tell me something I don't know, right?'LOL
I came to know the Lord through worship ministry. At the age of nine, I heard this kind of music, which was very different than what I had grown up with in my church, at that point in time. It was life-changing for me. I literally hung on every word, watching the leader play and sing. Several years later, I found myself in a different church, where they were looking for more people to join the music ministry. I remember feeling so scared...b/c I knew I was supposed to step up, but the thought of being on stage, was terrifying. I clearly remember a still, small voice saying: "if someone confirms that you need to be up there, will you do it? " I told the Lord that I would. Sure enough, after the service, a man I hardly knew put his hand on my shoulder--I turned around, and he looked me in the eye and said: you need to be on the worship team."
God speaks in many ways and knows how to get our attention! While that moment will forever be pinnacle, I've come to realize that we are often in the 'valleys of life', where its hard to see what is next, or know what God is doing. Either way, I've come to trust Him. Whatever He has planned, I know it will be good. He is more than enough, when it seems we are at the end of ourselves.
Have a good one :)