And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 2 Kings 4:2 


This text seems so simple at first glance but when the Pastor was reading the text in its entirety to tell the widow's story it was the last part of verse two that grabbed me like a kid in the trick or treat bowl.  I heard the words I have nothing... but a pot of oil.  That word arrested me so fast, so completely and utterly knocked me over.  Let me explain why.

It wasn't the fact that the widow didn't have anything but more so that she didn't realize the value of what she actually did have.  The oil!!  If you've got the oil you have everything you need.  The woman didn't just have oil, she had a pot, or a VESSEL.. (catch me in the spirit).  The woman had oil but she also had a place for the oil to be kept.  The same thing has to be true for us.

In order to have that oil, which is representative of the blessings of God, the move and flow of God, and the anointing, we have to first be vessels.  How else can we hold what God pours into us?  We can't!!  This is the amazing part though... God told her to go borrow pots because He was about to use the prophet to enlarge her territory and move her from a place of lack to overflow and abundance.  She couldn't hold it all with what she already had so he also had to enlarge her capacity to hold and carry.

Sometimes we feel like we don't have anything or what we do have can't take us to where we've imagined going.  I have nothing but this creative bug... I have nothing but this brownie recipe... I have nothing but this ball of yarn... I have nothing but a guitar...I have nothing but my voice..  Let me remind you that this great big amazing God we serve can create something out of nothing!  He can take a scrap of what you have left and turn it into more than you've ever dreamed.  If you have the oil, you have everything you need for a breakthrough.

I always used to wonder how God was ever going to use my potpourri of gifts for His glory and day by day He's showing me.  Giving me crazy outrageous ideas, stirring up my creativity and blessing me with opportunities to use my gifts to bless and inspire others.  I don't know what your nothing is, BUT that pot of oil has everything in it.

 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19

For me, that doesn't always look like standing behind the podium with a clergy collar on.  It's here in this blog, on bookmarks, t-shirts, in periscopes, classes, workshops, conversations over Pepsi and chocolate donuts.  It's through writing devotionals and children's books, designing posters and flyers, cooking meals and serving.  Laughing until I can't breathe and tears are streaming down my face, sharing tissues with a grieving friend, singing songs on a road trip because someone needs to get away, eating icecream after a hard day  and more than anything...Loving like Jesus does!  There's a lot in that jar of oil, more than any of us would dare to dream.  So what seems to be nothing right now, could quite possibly be everything!!  The oil is costly, but it's so worth it!