God Gives Us What We're Prepared to Receive

Does anyone else do their best thinking while they style their hair and put on their make-up? This morning I had a thought come to me while I was doing those mundane chores. Side note here: perhaps I do my best thinking then because I really don't like the getting-ready process and so my mind wanders to other more exciting territories. Here we go.

A widow came to Elisha one day all in a dither because a creditor had come to her since her husband died, she couldn't satisfy his demands and so he was going to take her sons as slaves. She was totally helpless and came to Elisha looking for guidance.

He asked her a very important question. "What do you have in the house? What do you all ready possess? What are your current resources?"

She replied that all in the world she owned was a small flask of olive oil. Wow, she was in bad shape! Elisha then told her to go do something very strange. She was to borrow all kinds of vessels from her neighbors and friends. Little ones, big ones, tall ones, short ones, anything they had available. Then she was to take all of these behind closed doors at her home and with her sons' help fill all of the vessels from the small flask she now owned.

I'm afraid if I had been told to do such a silly-sounding thing I might have missed out on what this lady experienced. Without questioning Elisha she "did as she was told." Her sons brought her jar after jar, vessel after vessel. She poured and she poured and she poured. She stood and watched the provision of God flow from her tiny flask out into the empty vessels she didn't even have access to when she woke up that morning.

Then something very unique happened. She asked her sons to bring her the next vessel and they told her that they had filled all that they had previously gathered for the project at hand. At that point, the small flask she started with went dry. She received what she had prepared to receive. Not one vessel shy; not one vessel too many. The rest of the story is that by selling the vessels full of oil, she was able to satisfy the demands of the creditor. The rest was to provide for their living expenses in the future. Did they gather all of the vessels they possibly could have or did they quit when the task became hard and the heat of the day made it difficult to go on? If they had gathered more, could they have had more? All of these unanswered questions caused me to have a very different focus on my day.

What am I ready to receive? What vessels do I have ready for the Lord to fill? Am I anticipating much so I bring my best preparations and energy to the task at hand? The Lord will fill whatever we bring. He gives us what we're prepared to receive.