Being Willing To Fulfill Your Role In God’s Plan Of Provision!

“A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.” 2 Kings 4:1-7 NKJ

This passage gives us a great picture of God’s desire for His people working together to meet one another’s needs. Elisha, the widow, and the neighbors had to fulfill their calling in this situation in order for the widow’s needs to be met. And in reading the widows response to Elisha in this passage you can sense the amount of pressure she was under and the pain she was experiencing with the threat of her sons being taken into slavery; due to her inability to pay her debts. And if any of the people in this story would have ignored and disobeyed God’s voice; her worst nightmare would have come true. But they didn’t and the result of their choice to listen and obey gives us a wonderful pattern of success to follow.

All of us know what financial pressure feels like and many of us have, at one time or another, have dodged phone calls from creditors wanting to be paid. I have personally experienced this and the anxiety it produces is almost too much to bear at times! Maybe you too have been in, or are in, a time of financial hardship and can identify with the kind of pressure the widow was experiencing in this story. While no one is going to take our children into slavery if we can’t pay our debts; we do experience other devastating losses as a result of financial hardship.

If you are in a financial crisis, I want to encourage you today and let you know that God is your provider and He is faithful! But I also want you to know how important it is to seek Him for the way He wants to meet your financial needs. Sometimes He will give you a creative idea that will produce income. Sometimes He will prompt someone to help. He may open up a door that leads to a second job. And sometimes He tells us to make our need known and ask the people around us for help, just like Elisha instructed the widow to do. We never know the way He will meet our needs but we can be assured He will! But it is our responsibility to seek Him for direction because only He knows the path that leads to our provision.

In this passage God gave the widow instructions through Elisha. He said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.” Can you imagine what must have been going through her mind at the time? Think about it for a minute. She is grieving the loss of her husband, facing the loss of her sons to slavery, and experiencing feelings of hopelessness due to her financial hardship. And Elisha instructs her to go to neighbors and ask for help. And not just a little help; he told her to ask for a lot of help. We know this because he said, “do not gather just a few.” But with everything she was experiencing she obeyed his command. When she did God was not only faithful to meet her immediate need but He exceeded it; even to the point of providing enough provision for her and her sons to live on for the rest of their lives after they sold the oil in the jars!

I am sure it was difficult for each person in this story to fulfill their purpose but as they did; God was faithful. For Elisha He had to be willing and obedient to be the voice of hope, encouragement, and instruction. For the woman she had to be willing to receive the encouragement, and she had to be willing to listen to the voice of instruction. For the neighbors they had to be willing to listen as she made her need known and then be willing to meet it; even without the promise of a return for their investment. But as they were willing and obedient, God was faithful to perform that which He had promised!

So my question for all of us today is what role is God asking us to walk in at this time in life and are we willing to be obedient? Are you like Elisha and called to be the voice of hope and instruction for a friend who is struggling financially and are you willing to encourage them in the way the Lord leads you to give instruction? Are you the widow who has a need? Or are you the neighbor who can meet the need of someone who is suffering from financial hardship? We have to remember that every role in the body of Christ is vital and important and when we walk in our roles God blesses every one of us. But with each role comes the responsibility to be willing and obedient to the voice of God.

Today I want us to spend time praying and asking God to reveal His desire for us as His disciples and to be willing to submit to that desire. If we will do this on a daily basis we will experience the fulfillment of God’s promises in our own lives and we will see the fulfillment of God’s promises manifest in the lives of the people around us. During different seasons of life we will all be given the opportunity to walk in each of these roles. If we are willing today to walk in the role we find ourselves in, then when our seasons change and we find ourselves in a different role; we will be prepared to walk in the next role as well. One role is not greater than another! They are all equally important for the building up of the body of Christ! The most important thing for us to do is to be willing and obedient to walk in the role God has instructed us to fulfill.