Focus

Stop and thank God for being present with you today. Ask for God’s guidance as you hear God’s voice through scripture and the writer.

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Read

2 Kings 4:1-7 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Now the wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.” Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a jar of oil.” He said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not just a few. Then go in, and shut the door behind you and your children, and start pouring into all these vessels; when each is full, set it aside.” So she left him and shut the door behind her and her children; they kept bringing vessels to her, and she kept pouring. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” But he said to her, “There are no more.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your children can live on the rest.”

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Reflect

I am just old enough to look back on my life and know that God works behind the scenes and opens doors that I had no business going through. God gave me the strength to continue to do things which I had no more strength to do. God opened up resources that I had no idea even existed.

I was talking to one of my children last week while he was planning his future. He was saying things like, “I don’t have the ability to do that,” and “I am not smart enough for this,” and “that’s too hard from me to do.” I had to ask, “you don’t see the unseen do you?” His response, “Well, I believe in God, and I pray, but this is real life.” I had to chuckle. He isn’t yet old enough, or experienced enough, to see how God has already intervened in his life, he hasn’t learned that God’s grace has already given him resources he has never earned or dreamed he needed. He hasn’t yet connected his good life with God’s grace. It’s just how life works to him. So it is hard for him to see that there is still more God will give as he grows and pursues God’s will.

I praise God every day because I do not deserve much, but God has given to me abundantly, and in faith, I believe that God will continue to care for me as I serve. I have experienced something like the widow in the passage. You probably have as well. God is amazing.

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Pray

God, you continue to bless. Give us eyes to see Your blessings, give us faith to live by Your certain promises.

Go with God!