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Limited by… Me?

Her husband was dead, she was out of money and a creditor was coming to take her and her two boys away as slaves. That is when she sought help from the prophet Elisha.

“How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” Elisha asked.

“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil”.

Elisha then told her to go to all her neighbours and borrow as many empty jars as she could. She was then told to go home and start pouring the oil into the jars.

As she began to fill the jars, the oil miraculously continued flow until she had filled every jar that she had in the house. God provided for her in her time of need and she was able to sell the extra oil to pay her debts.

Here is the interesting part of this story for us: The scripture says, “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” (2 Kings 4:6).

Did you get that? The oil stopped flowing after all the jars that she had gathered were full. So, what would have happened if she had been able to get four more jars? How about 14 more? What about 40 more?

The scripture seems to say that the only thing that limited the amount of oil that she received was her capacity to receive it. In other words, the blessing stopped because of her not because of God.

So that leads me to another question, “How many jars do we have?” In other words, how have we prepared ourselves to receive God’s blessings? Are we getting ready and gathering what we need? Are we putting ourselves in a place where God and use us and work through us?

What if God is just waiting to hear, forgive and bless you? What if he really is able to do “more than anything we can ask or imagine?” (Ephesians 3:20)

Maybe it is time to start listening and getting ready.

Do you have any empty jars?

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