I’ve found myself in recent weeks saying “I wish I felt stronger” “I wish I could help more” and battling an underlying fear of “Is what I’m doing enough?”
In 2 Kings 4 we read about a widow who was faced with a really difficult set of circumstances. Her husband had died and left her with debts to pay and the creditors were coming to take her two sons away as slaves. The prophet Elisha was chatting with her about her situation and asked her “Tell me what do you have in your house?” she replied “Your servant has nothing there at all, except a little oil”
The widow underestimated what she had and labelled it NOTHING but Elisha taught her that her NOTHING was actually SOMETHING and enough to change her situation around.
What happens as the story continues is as she pours this little bit of oil out, God causes it to multiply and it kept pouring and filling containers until they ran out of containers. The sale of this oil was enough to pay off her debts and stop her sons being taken.
This story reminds me of two things:
1- Not to underestimate the little things I do have. We can end up
focusing on all the things we CAN’T do at the moment and all
the skills we DON’T have but what if we focused on what we DO
have and CAN do and realised that is enough.
2- In the hands of God my little can be multiplied. Just like the 5
loaves and 2 fish in the hands of Jesus became enough to feed
5000 people. As I use what I do have and trust God to use me I
will see it multiply and bless many.
Our day to day jobs have changed drastically and the benchmarks from which we use to assess our achievements each day may have changed a lot. For some of you, you are now juggling home schooling children, looking after sick relatives and trying to fit in work around this.
Let’s be reminded this week that we all have something no matter how big or small that we can do. Let us know what we do is enough and it is making a difference.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can” Arthur Ashe
Challenge
Make a list of three things you want more of. For each one, write down three things you have and are grateful for today.
Prayer
Father God, staff may be struggling with feeling like we are not enough I pray may you give us a fresh understanding of the significance of the things we are doing in our jobs. May you show us the impact it is having and may we be encouraged. Where we are feeling on empty and like we don’t have much left in our tanks to give may we be strengthened by you and as we give out of what we do have may we find ourselves refreshed and with more in return. Amen.
Assistant Lead of Christian Distinctiveness at Bluecoat Wollaton
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