Being Down To Nothing Could Mean God Is Up To Something…
2 Kings 4:1-7 (New Living Translation)
1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.” 2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. 3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.” 5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim! “Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. “There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing. 7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
I remember a time in my life when I thought I lost everything. At least from a natural perspective if someone was looking at me (and they were) they would have said things were pretty bad. I had lost my health, my spouse, my family unit, my financial security and stability, my peace of mind and my career all went at the same time. I thought for sure life as I knew it was over. At that time what were my two small children were with a relative, and I had locked myself in my bedroom, and I did not answer the phone, eat, nor did I sleep much in those four days. Every thought imaginable ran through my mind in those days. I was sure I could not make it. I was sure I was giving up. It felt in certain moments during those days that I was fading into the bed in which I lay. I curled up with depression and made it my blanket and I tucked despair under my head and made it the pillow in which I laid my head upon. I heard nothing but failure and words that lulled me deeper into a place, that threaten not to turn me a loose. The pain that I felt within I was sure there was no relief and the anguish that was present I was sure would be my now constant companion. Fear had laid a hold of me, and I was shackled to it and it to me. I felt there was no escape for all that was now what my life had become in just a matter of weeks, and months following what I thought should have been one of the happiest times of my life, but it wasn’t it had become a train wreck that everyone had stopped to watch and gawk at.
But in that last day, I stretch myself out across the bed and said to God “if you can hear me, please prove that you have not left me. God if you will heal me and help, I will serve you all the days of my life.” It was in those moments that I cried out of the depth of my soul, but it was no longer sorrow that gripped me, but it was a process of cleansing and release. That night I was able to sleep, without feeling tormented, and without feeling afraid. The next day when I saw my children, although I was still partially paralyzed and their father was still gone, I somehow understood that it was okay and that someone was with me and He would stay with me and see me through, what now was the life I needed to live for Him, and for my children. God gave me strength to care for my children as I recovered, He provided for my every need and theirs too, and although there was still drama in areas it did not take me under and it did not destroy me, it only strengthen me and helped me to fight to live and live to fight. You see God was present, and He was now my Jehovah Jirah, the one who provided for me. He became my Jehovah Rohi, the one who healed me, He became my Jehovah Shalom He was truly my peace. He became my Jehovah Nissi, He was the banner that said God is here; for she is mine and I was His! God gave me my smile back, my walk back and my ability to live a life that doctors were not sure that I would live.
Today, I have by God’s grace obtained three undergraduate degrees and I am finishing up a dual Masters. My children are now 20 and 18, smart, beautiful and have never used drugs, alcohol, and have maintained abstinence to this point. I have reached out and helped woman who have been where I have been and are walking where I have walked. God has allowed me to write devotionals, preach His word, counsel and speak into the lives of many. But it wasn’t until I got down to what I perceived was nothing, it was in those moments that I now know God was up to a whole lot of something. He had ordained and predestined all that had happened in my life, to bring Glory and honor to Him. For it was of no hands of anyone else that I have made it this far, and become the woman that I have.
Many of you might be feeling like you are between a rock and a hard place; that there is no relief in sight. You feel alone, and people that you have poured into, believed in and taken care of have abandon you or done you dirty, and you feel as if you have nothing else to give and nowhere else to go. But it is now that God can provide you a miracle. He can take what people and circumstances have tried to destroy and make it something beautiful, something extraordinary, and something that turns you from someone despised or someone people feel sorry for, into a vessel of honor, a person or praise, and individual that brings glory to God just because they live. Don’t give up, get up, don’t let go, instead let God, become your all, the one who can and will transform your life, right before your eyes and the eyes of those who, tried to destroy or mocked you!
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