April 3, 2019
2 Kings 4:1-7 The Message (MSG)
Today is the twenty-fifth day of our 40-Day Lenten Series, “Praying for a Kingdom Heart.” Lent should be a time of prayerful reflection, repentance, and restoration as we draw closer to the heart of God. Today, we continue our prayers for a Kingdom heart as we look further into God’s plan to provide for us through righteous sowing and reaping. He alone is the All-Sufficient One. He is the Source of everything we need in life. God resists the proud, but he gives Grace to the humble; he instigates supply when the humble cry out (1 Peter 5:5). When we have problems, we need to get with people of deep faith to pray and gain wisdom. That level of transparency may be difficult for some of us; we might not want others to know where we find ourselves. Yet, people of deep faith push our faith to produce big things in God’s Kingdom economy. We must sow a seed and activate our faith in order to reap divine supply. Sometimes the Lord provides inspiration or places an idea on our hearts when we pray; then, he asks us to follow. The idea may not always make sense to our natural mind; the idea is a seed that requires faith. Have you found yourself praying for God to meet a need in your life only to find you have an idea as a seed?
In our passage, we note a woman in need. Recently widowed, she approaches the prophet Elisha. This woman’s husband was a godly man who served the Lord by serving others; he sowed seeds of goodness in his devotion to God. She tells of her husband’s faith, but never mentions her own. Elisha sets her up to receive; he pushes her to use her faith. He makes her identify a small seed of provision; oil is left in her house. Elisha instructs her use her faith by collecting jugs. I am sure she is thinking, “God, this is ridiculous! These empty jugs are not going to save my sons from becoming slaves!” True enough, collecting jugs was a test of her faith. How many jugs would she collect, because she believed God spoke through Elisha?
During Lent, we will be using the acronym P.R.A.Y. as we pray for a Kingdom Heart. P=praise, R=repent, A=ask, and Y=yield. May God bless you as you spend time in God’s Word and in prayer today.
2 Kings 4:1-7
4 One day the wife of a man from the guild of prophets called out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead. You well know what a good man he was, devoted to God. And now the man to whom he was in debt is on his way to collect by taking my two children as slaves.”
2 Elisha said, “I wonder how I can be of help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Well, I do have a little oil.”
3-4 “Here’s what you do,” said Elisha. “Go up and down the street and borrow jugs and bowls from all your neighbors. And not just a few—all you can get. Then come home and lock the door behind you, you and your sons. Pour oil into each container; when each is full, set it aside.”
5-6 She did what he said. She locked the door behind her and her sons; as they brought the containers to her, she filled them. When all the jugs and bowls were full, she said to one of her sons, “Another jug, please.”
He said, “That’s it. There are no more jugs.”
Then the oil stopped.
7 She went and told the story to the man of God. He said, “Go sell the oil and make good on your debts. Live, both you and your sons, on what’s left.”
Prayer: Lord, I praise you for helping me identify the work of active faith for Kingdom sowing and reaping. Your Word is such an amazing resource to understand your All-Sufficiency and your desire to meet my every need. I repent for not pressing my faith; my faith needs to go deeper and deeper. I ask for you to help me cooperate with the work of the Spirit to enlarge my faith capacity. I will yield to your inspiration and direction. In Jesus’ name. Amen.