When we are down and out, like the woman in 2 Kings 4, what do we do? Her story gives us some clues about the steps to take when we find ourselves wondering if we have the ability or the energy to keep going.

Step 1: Now the wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.”

• Go to someone who can give Godly advice. We need to admit our need and share our struggle. It’s a hard step to take sometimes.

Step 2: Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell, me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a jar of oil.”

• Recognize that though life is busy, stressful, painful, lonely, fill in the blank ______ , we do have something. We have the Holy Spirit, the oil, no matter how little we feel we have. Jesus sent The Comforter for you and for me and promised He would be with us always.

Step 3: He (Elisha) said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few. 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. So she left him and shut the door behind her and her children; they kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring.

• We have to start pouring in order to be filled. Even when we feel we can’t keep going, we must start pouring the little bit of oil into another person’s “vessel”. It may happen before closed doors as we pray for others, or it may be when we listen to a hurting heart, or invite a lonely one home, or it may be any one of a million scenarios. When we start pouring into another person’s life, we miraculously become filled ourselves.

Step 4: When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” But he said to her, “There are no more.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your children can live on the rest.”

• Claim the power of the Holy Spirit as the “oil” of life. Let’s witness to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and inspire all to look confidently to the future because our needs will always be provided!

Norma Osborn

Welcome | Who We Are | Sermons | Ministries | Resources | Worship | Contact Us
© 2001-2006 Pacific Union College SDA Church. All rights reserved.