DoublePortion_October2023_8.5x5.5_REV.indd

You have skills, contacts, connections, abilities, knowledge and much more that God can take and magnify in significant ways. When the poor widow told about a little oil still remain ing in her cupboard, Elisha responded with specific instructions: “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.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” (2 Kings 3,4, emphasis added).This unusual command can be narrowed down to the following: Exert- Remember, “You do your part and God will do His” –not always, but typically. “God helps those who help themselves” may not be in the Bible, but it often applies. Dig some ditches, strike a rock, or grab a lad’s lunch, right? Even this poor, grieving woman was called upon to put forth the effort to go and ask her neighbors for help. A couple of years ago, as my wife and I traveled home from Alabama to Georgia, my car would not start after a brief stop at one of those mega gas stations. I turned the key, thinking, please God, help this car crank! After several unsuccessful attempts, I looked for someone with jumper cables. Quite frankly, it was awkward and humiliating, yet I had to do something. Finally, after several no’s, some nice man from Oklahoma hooked me up and got me going. Certainly, God orchestrated it all.The man came through, but not without my involvement. Expect- Note the part of Elisha’s instructions I put in bold print: “Don’t ask for just a few.” In other words, God was about to bless her socks off, so she’d better get prepared. Recall that the Bible says, God “is able to do far more abundant ly beyond all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).William Carey said, “Expect great things from God, attempt greatest things for God.”

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