Have you ever faced an impossible situation and not known what to do? Have you ever had a debt so big you couldn’t pay it, or a problem so big you couldn’t fix it? Have you ever had God come through for you in unexpected ways to provide exactly what you need? I certainly have and I bet you have too.
2 Kings chapter 4 tells the story of the prophet Elisha helping a poor widow. Verses 1-7: “One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, ‘My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.’ ‘What can I do to help you?’ Elisha asked. ‘Tell me, what do you have in the house?’ ‘Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil.’ she replied. And Elisha said, ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when its filled.’ So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every container was full to the brim! ‘Bring me another jar,’ she said to one of her sons.’ ‘There aren’t any more!’ he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, ‘Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.'”
Wow. Isn’t that just incredible? You’re likely not facing your children being taken as slaves because of your debts, but you’re facing a hardship that is a threat. You don’t have the solution. You can’t do this on your own. But there’s one question you need to hear right now, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
It’s easy to become so negatively focused that all we see is what we’ve lost and what we don’t have. That won’t help you now. WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
This woman had only a small flask of olive oil. Understand, this was a very small container used for anointing, not even cooking. It was her only thing of value and her only thing left.
I find it remarkable in her state of desperation that she even remembered she still had something so small. After losing so much, she still knew she had that small flask of olive oil. Perhaps that morning, she had made a list of her gratitudes and all she had left to be grateful for was her 2 sons and that tiny bit of olive oil. She knew she had it because she was grateful for it.
Gratitude. It costs you nothing, but it makes everything more. Gratitude turns what we have into enough and more. This woman had taken an inventory of what she still had to be grateful for, so she immediately knew, I HAVE THIS FLASK OF OLIVE OIL! And her gratitude for so little made a way for so much more.
Good ol’ Willie Nelson once said, “The more you practice the art of gratitude, the more you have to be grateful for.” How many of us know that’s true?
Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. This widow woman facing the threat of losing her 2 sons had spent time in gratitude for what she had left. And that gratitude brought a richness she could not have expected.
My sister, what have you been complaining about? It’s making you a poor woman. You simply cannot be grateful and be complaining at the same time. You cannot be fully aware of your blessings while you’re complaining about the details.
Gratitude is a sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice of entitlement and expectations. It’s a sacrifice of control.
Complaining is also a sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice of blessings and provision. It’s a sacrifice of seeing God’s power to take what little you have and make it more than eno...