A Little Oil

I've just finished reading the book Reckless Devotion: 365 Days into the Heart of Radical Loveby Heidi and Rolland Baker for the third time. And I've put parts of one of their sections together for this devotion I'm going to share at a nursing home in a couple weeks.

2 Kings 4:1-7 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

Elisha asked the widow what she had when she cried out for help. And instinctively she said, “Nothing.” But then she remembered. “Oh, I have a little oil.”

So often we are dismissive of ourselves. We say we have nothing. Nothing God would want to use anyhow. We come up with all kinds of good reasons for why God can’t do anything notable or meaningful with us. “I have no special talent, I’m poor, I’m old, I have no connections, no special gift.”

“But, wait. I guess I have a little oil.”

And that is all God needs to take us and do a miracle.

Then Elisha told the widow to go around to all her neighbors to give her their empty jars.

What an interesting approach to solving her problem! God could have told Elisha, “Pay off her debts.” Or “Give her money.” But He did neither.

Why? Because God didn’t want to just solve her problem; He wanted to change her life, giving her a completely different outlook and perspective. He wanted to transform her faith and grow her trust in God, removing her anger and bitterness.

The process of gathering up all the empty jars was a prophetic act. She cooperated with God, making the statement that something was about to happen, even if she didn’t know precisely what. “Go and ask your neighbors for their empty jars.” Elisha told her. So she did. And he added, “Don’t just ask for a few.” Then he told her to start pouring oil.

Think about this. She had a lot of jars and her one jar with just a little oil in it. But she took the step of obedience and began pouring. And the oil didn’t run out until every jar was full!  God had done a miracle.

She now had the resources she needed to pay off her debts and get out of her bad situation. But more than that she had firsthand knowledge of the supernatural provision of our incredible Father. She had the faith to believe for His supernatural intervention in her life and the lives of others.

Her empty jar had been filled. Her life transformed.

And God wants to do the same for us. He wants to fill our emptiness with His plenty and He’s inviting us to take a step of faith, to trust Him completely.

He’s looking for is our willingness. He wants us to quit telling Him He can’t use us and just say yes. He’s looking for empty vessels to fill. He is looking for those people who want to be fully filled with His precious Holy Spirit, who don’t have a lot of stuff in the way.

And when we come to Him willing to cooperate He’ll do the rest. That’s when God is able to display His glory through us.

When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and filled Jesus’ disciples, empowering them to go out and plant the Church; that wasn’t a one time only thing. God is still anointing, filling and empowering those who belong to Him. We should each ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His oil everyday.  In fact, fill us to overflowing so that oil touches the lives of those around us. So that the love of Jesus flows from us.

God wants to use you. When He calls you, go. Now you may be sitting there thinking, “I’m 80 years old and can’t drive any more. Where am I supposed to go for God?” Well, yes, I don’t think He’s going to call you to go to Africa as a missionary! But he may ask you to knock on your next door neighbor’s door and make a new friend. Or sit with someone at the dinner table who’s alone. Or attend a Bible study. Or write a letter. Or send a card. Or smile at someone. Encourage someone. Make someone laugh! Or listen to their problem without telling them about yours. Or pray for someone. Pray for our country, the church or the world.

God has placed each of us where we are. If we let Him we can be useful to Him.

And whatever He has you do, do it with all your might and for His glory. We are His children and He wants us to burn brightly for Him.

Ask God to empty you of all that hinders His work in your life. Choose to make yourself an empty container. Then He can come and fill you with His presence, and in a moment, everything can change.

Pure Religion

This is from the book “Reckless Devotion” which I’ve mentioned a couple times before. I LOVE this book. And I wanted to remember what authors and missionaries Heidi and Rolland Baker wrote about Pure Religion:

What is pure religion? What is pure Christianity? What is pure love? What is this life all about? Is it about how many people we lead to Jesus or how many churches we plant or how good we are as people? Or is it about being so hidden in the heart of our awesome, eternal God of love that we are swallowed up in Him until it is no longer we who live, but Christ living in us?

“And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:40)

The reason I am in Africa, the reason I have come to serve here, the reason I am alive, is for this purpose and this purpose alone: to learn to love as Jesus loved.

Every day Jesus meets me in unexpected ways. Sometimes He is an orphan looking for love and unconditional acceptance. Sometimes He is a widow desperately begging for a simple job in order to provide the basic necessities of life for her hungry children. Sometimes He is another lost and broken person who just needs a hug and someone to listen. But every day I see Him in a new way.

What matters most is love. Jesus living inside us is happy to use our hands to heal the sick, our arms to hug the lost, our feet and our mouths to go and speak about the Kingdom to all who need to hear it.

This is “faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6)

Going Through Seasons

I’m reading the book Reckless Devotion by Heidi and Rolland Baker. A page a day.

Yes, it’s that good.

I wanted to remember this paragraph: “In life we go through bumpy patches. It’s inevitable. But it does not need to be unfruitful. Suffering connects us to the heart of God like nothing else. Instead of becoming bitter about our circumstances, we can ask the Father to birth a deeper compassion in us. Suffering is a season. Seasons come and go. When you move into the next season of your life, take compassion, not bitterness, with you.”

Reckless Devotion by Heidi and Rolland Baker

This book of 365 devotions (Reckless Devotion) is beautifully written. The messages both sooth your soul and fire you up.

Each week is divided into a theme, but all are meant to help us see that God wants all of us. He wants our passion for Him and our compassion for everyone else. And He will finish in us what He has started – to fill us completely with the Holy Spirit for the Glory of God. Once this happens we will look at the world through His eyes and love like He loves.

Heidi also wrote that she doesn’t see the point in prosperity and well-being in life if all it does is distract us from Jesus

She says that the King of Glory is looking for servant-lovers who will bring the poor, the crippled, the blind and lame to fill up His house. We are to love God and love the person in front of us.

I could share quotes from this book all day, like: “What matters most is love. Jesus living inside us is happy to use our hands to heal the sick, our arms to hug the lost, our feet and our mouths to go and speak about the Kingdom to all who need to hear it. This is faith working in love.”

But I really suggest you read the book for yourself. There is so much in it to move and inspire and change you.

*I was given a book by the publisher for my honest review.

**Update 10/22/16 I have now read through this book 3 times and will continue to start over the next time I finish it. It is that good!!!!