A few days ago I read 2 Kings chapter 4 and had an interesting thought that is important for many of us who are needing and wanting help from God.
A Widow In Need
It's the story of a widow of one of the prophets who is being harassed by creditors, because she can't pay what's owed. It's gotten so bad they've threatened to take her two sons and make them bondservants to pay off the debt. (This was a common practice back then.)
She comes to Elisha to tell him her problem, because her husband was a fellow prophet and friend of Elisha's.
Elisha is puzzled about how he can help her and thinking out loud he says, "How can I help you? What do you have at your house?" She tells him, "I don't have anything except for a small flask of oil." (This was special oil she was probably saving to be used to anoint her body when she died, as was the custom.)
And that was all that Elisha needed to hear.
He came up with a very strange plan for her to try.
He told her, "Go around and ask all your neighbors if you can borrow their empty jars. And ask for as many as you can." Then he said, "After that, go back to your house with your sons and close the door. Pour the oil you have in that flask into the other jars and when a jar is full, set it aside and fill the next one."
She went off and did exactly what he told her to do.
As she began filling the jars something miraculous happened. She filled the first jar and still had more left! She set it aside and asked her sons for another. She filled that one too and still had more oil in the flask, so her sons handed her another one.
This kept happening over and over until finally she asked for another jar and her sons told her there were none left! At that exact moment the oil in the flask stopped flowing.
She went back to Elisha and told him everything that happened. I imagine he smiled and then said, "Take all that oil and sell it. You'll have enough to pay off your debts. You and your sons can live off of what's left."
A Pattern To How God Works
When I got to that part of the story this thought hit me...
Many times when we're asking for God's help and looking for an answer, we usually look "out there" for the answer. We're expecting God to create some answer out of thin air.
And he can do that. But that doesn't seem to be the pattern of how he works.
The pattern seems to be this: he starts with what we have.
What did God ask Moses? "What's that in your hand?" And Moses said, "A staff..." God used that staff to perform the miracles that eventually were used to set the Israelites free.
When Jesus needed to feed the multitude he asked the disciples what? He asked them what they had. And he used that small amount of fish and loaves to feed the whole crowd. They even had extra left!
Is it just me?
Or doesn't it seem like God likes to use what we have and use that to help us to do beyond what we ever imagined could be done.
What if our normal habit of looking and expecting "out there" is the wrong?
That reminds me of a story Russel Conwell is famous for telling.
In case you don't know, Russel was a famous baptist minister, lawyer, writer, and communicator. He was the founder and first president of Temple University in Pennsylvania. His famous story was called, "An Acre Of Diamonds."
An Acre Of Diamonds
This is a story of a man in ancient Persia named Al Hafed. Al Hafed owned a very large farm with orchards, grain fields and gardens.
He was a contented and wealthy man -- contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented.
One day a Buddhist priest visited the old farmer and sat down by Al Hafed's fire. He told that him how this world of ours was made. Then he told him about how diamonds were made.
And the old priest told Al Hafed a story that would change his life forever.
He told Al Hafed that if he had a handful of diamonds he could purchase a whole country, and with a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth.
Conwell describes how Al Hafed reacted to this...
“Al Hafed heard all about diamonds and how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man -- not that he had lost anything, but poor because he was discontented and discontented because he thought he was poor.
He said: "I want a mine of diamonds!" So he lay awake all night, and early in the morning sought out the priest.”
He woke up that priest out of his dreams and said to him, "Will you tell me where I can find diamonds?" The priest said, "Diamonds? What do you want with diamonds?"
"I want to be immensely rich," said Al Hafed, "but I don't know where to go."
"Well," said the priest, "if you will find a river that runs over white sand between high mountains, in those sands you will always see diamonds."
"Do you really believe that there is such a river?" said, Al Hafed. "Plenty of them, plenty of them; all you have to do is just go and find them, then you have them," said the priest.
Al Hafed said, "I will go."
So he sold his farm, collected his money at interest, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds.
He began at the Mountains of the Moon.
Afterwards he went around into Palestine, then wandered on into Europe, and at last, wandered on into Spain.
At last, when his money was all spent, and he was in rags, wretchedness and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay in Barcelona, Spain.
When a massive wave came rolling in through the Pillars of Hercules the poor, afflicted, suffering man couldn't resist the awful temptation to throw himself into that incoming tide. He sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.
The Surprising Discovery
But something happened after Al Hafed died... It happened to Al Hafed's successor, the man who bought his land from him.
One day he led his camel out into the garden to drink, and as that camel put its nose down into the clear water of the garden brook something surprising happened.Al Hafed's successor noticed a curious flash of light from the sands of the shallow stream.
He reached down into the stream and pulled out a black stone having an eye of light that reflected all the colors of the rainbow. He took that curious pebble into the house and left it on the mantel, then went on his way and forgot all about it.
A few days after that, this same old priest who told Al Hafed how diamonds were made, came in to visit his successor.
When he saw that flash of light from the mantel he rushed up and said, "Here is a diamond -- here is a diamond!”
Then asked, “Has Al Hafed returned?"
"No, no. Al Hafed has not returned and that is not a diamond; that is nothing but a stone; we found it right out here in our garden."
But the old priest disagreed. He said, "I know a diamond when I see it. That is a diamond!"
Then together they rushed to the garden and stirred up the white sands with their fingers and found even more diamonds.
They found ones that were more beautiful, more valuable diamonds than the first.
And, according to Conwell, what they discovered was the diamond mines of Golconda - one the most magnificent diamond mines in all the history of mankind.
What Do You Have?
God is too creative and cool to box him in and say he has to always start with what you have. He doesn't. But there seems to be a pattern that goes against our natural first inclination to look and wait for something from the outside.
Maybe the first thing we need to do, and the first place we need to start, is with what we have.
What do you have? Really?
- What talents do you have
- What knowledge do you have?
- What experience do you have?
- What relationships do you have?
- What possessions do you have?
- What else do you have?
In your search for the answer you've been looking for, why don't you ask God where and what he wants you to start with?
Start here first and see what God reveals and does.
If he wants to be creative and do something by using something "out there" he'll reveal it to you.
But if he wants to use his familiar pattern, then you will see him use your talent, or knowledge, or experience in ways beyond your expectation to provide for your needs!
This will save you from waiting and looking for the answer "out there" when God is asking you, "What do you have?"
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