Start with what you have
And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” ~ 2 Kings 4:2
Have you ever looked at what you have and thought, “This isn’t enough”? Maybe you’ve looked at your bank account, your schedule, your energy, your resources, or even your own abilities and thought, “Lord, I’m not sure how this is going to work.” Sometimes we focus so much on what we don’t have that we overlook the one thing God has already placed in our hands.
That’s exactly where we find a widow in today’s scripture reading. She was facing a serious financial crisis. Her husband had died, creditors were coming, and she was about to lose her sons. When she cried out to Elisha, his first question wasn’t, “What are you missing?” He asked, “What do you have in your house?” Her answer seemed almost laughable compared to the size of her need. She had only a small jar of oil. But God has a way of taking what looks insignificant and turning it into more than enough.
This chapter is filled with miracles, but it’s also filled with ordinary people facing very real circumstances. There’s a widow who needs provision, a woman who longs for a child, a servant who sees an impossible situation, and a group of prophets who discover that God can provide even when there seems to be nothing to eat. In every situation, God showed that He is not limited by what we see.
As God’s people living in today’s world, we can easily fall into the same trap. We look at the size of the need and compare it to the size of our resources. We look at the problem and forget who our God is. But this passage reminds us that what we have may be small, but when we place it in God’s hands, small things can become the starting point for something much bigger.
Here are three truths to help you remember that God doesn’t always start by giving you something you don’t have. Sometimes He starts by asking you to recognize what He’s already placed in your hands.
1. God works with what you already have
The widow thought she had nothing, but she actually had a jar of oil. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for God to begin a miracle. Elisha instructed her to borrow empty containers from her neighbors, go inside with her sons, and begin pouring. As she poured, the oil continued to flow until every container was full. Notice something important.
The miracle began with what was already in her house. Sometimes we’re waiting for God to give us something new when He’s asking us to use what we already have. You may be thinking, “If I only had more money, more time, more experience, more connections, more confidence, or more resources, then I could really do something for God.” But God may be asking, “What do you already have?”
Maybe you have a testimony. Maybe you have a skill. Maybe you have a gift of encouragement. Maybe you have a home where people can gather. Maybe you have an idea you’ve been sitting on. Maybe you have a few hours each week that you could use to serve someone. Maybe you have a story that could encourage someone who is walking through what you’ve already overcome. Don’t underestimate what God can do with what you already have.
Take inventory of your life. Instead of making a list of everything you’re missing, make a list of what God has already placed in your hands. Then ask Him how He wants you to use it. You might be surprised at what happens when you stop saying, “I don’t have enough,” and start saying, “God, here’s what I have. What can You do with it?”
2. Obedience comes before the miracle
The widow had to do something that probably sounded strange. She was told to collect empty containers from her neighbors. Imagine knocking on someone’s door and saying, “Hi, I’m having a financial crisis. Could I borrow every empty container you have?” They probably had questions!
But she obeyed. She didn’t wait until she understood exactly how the miracle would happen. She simply followed the instructions she was given. She gathered the containers, went inside, and began pouring the oil. The miracle happened as she obeyed.
There are times when God will ask us to take a step before we understand the whole plan. We want the five-year blueprint, preferably laminated and color coded, before we’re willing to take step one. Usually God gives us just enough light for the next step, not the entire journey.
Maybe God has been nudging you to make a phone call, forgive someone, start something new, give generously, serve in an area, have a difficult conversation, or finally take a step toward something He’s been placing on your heart. You don’t need to know how everything is going to work out before you obey what God has already made clear.
Faith isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes faith looks like making the phone call, filling out the application, opening the Bible, having the conversation, showing up, giving what you can, or taking one small step when you still have questions. The widow didn’t know how much oil would come from that jar. She just started pouring. Sometimes you discover the provision while you’re walking in obedience.
3. God is not limited by what looks impossible
Later in the chapter, we see another miracle when a woman who had shown great kindness to Elisha receives a promise that she will have a son. Eventually, the child becomes sick and dies, but God worked through Elisha to bring him back to life.
Then there is another situation where the prophets have nothing to eat. Someone accidentally puts poisonous gourds into the stew, and suddenly there is a crisis at the dinner table. Elisha tells them to add flour to the pot, and the food becomes safe to eat.
It almost sounds like a collection of impossible situations, doesn’t it? Financial crisis, infertility, death, famine, poisoned food. Yet throughout the chapter, God keeps demonstrating that He is present in circumstances that look completely beyond human ability.
That’s good news for us because life doesn’t always give us easy situations. There are moments when we face things that we simply can’t fix. We can’t control another person’s choices. We can’t make someone change. We can’t manufacture an opportunity. We can’t guarantee an outcome. We can’t solve every problem with enough effort. But what we can’t do doesn’t limit what God can do.
Maybe you’re facing something right now that feels too big. Maybe you’re waiting for an answer that hasn’t come. Maybe you’re praying for a family member. Maybe you’re trusting God for provision. Maybe you’re standing in front of a situation where you honestly don’t know what to do next. Don’t allow the impossibility of the situation to become bigger in your mind than the greatness of your God.
You may not know how God will answer, but you can know that He is faithful. Your responsibility isn’t to figure out every detail. Your responsibility is to trust Him, obey what He shows you, and keep moving forward in faith.
Today I want to encourage you, don’t despise what looks small in your hands. The widow’s jar of oil didn’t look like enough to solve her problem, but God didn’t need a warehouse full of oil to begin a miracle. He simply needed her willingness to place what she had in His hands.
Maybe you feel like you have a small jar right now. Maybe your resources feel limited, your strength feels low, or your situation seems impossible. Start with what you have. Give God what you’ve been holding onto. Take the next step He puts in front of you and trust Him with the outcome.
God isn’t asking you to produce the miracle. He’s asking you to trust the One who can. The little you have becomes significant when it’s surrendered to a limitless God. So don’t say, “I don’t have enough.” Instead say, “God, this is what I have. I place it in Your hands.” Then start pouring.
Today’s scripture reading: 2 Kings 4
1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”
2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.
4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out.
6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased.
7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
8 Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food.
9 And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly.
10 Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
11 And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there.
12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him.
13 And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ”
She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
14 So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
16 Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.”
And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!”
17 But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.
18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers.
19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!”
So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out.
22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.”
23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.”
And she said, “It is well.”
24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.”
25 And so she departed, and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman!
26 Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ ”
And she answered, “It is well.”
27 Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
28 So she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.”
30 And the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.
31 Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed.
33 He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
34 And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.
35 He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36 And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
37 So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.
38 And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”
39 So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.
40 Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41 So he said, “Then bring some flour.” And he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
42 Then a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.”
43 But his servant said, “What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?”
He said again, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the Lord: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ”
44 So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Journal:
- What is something God has already placed in my hands that I’ve been overlooking or undervaluing?
- Where have I been focusing more on what I don’t have than on what God has already provided?
- Is there an area where God is asking me to take a step of obedience before I understand the whole plan?
- What situation in my life currently feels impossible?
- What would change if I focused more on God’s ability than on my limitations?
- What is one practical step of faith I can take this week?
