I Am A Vessel

This is the last day of a study I have been doing on 2 Kings 4:1-7.  Last Saturday I told you that God had shown me that He does have His way of doing things. Then I continued to share all that He taught me like the fact that it isn't always a lack of faith  that throws us into a desperate situation.  Then on Tuesday we learned it just takes small flask of oil to bring about a miracle.  Finally Wednesday He reminded me that I do have a part to play in my own miracle and that if I do my part then God will do the rest.

All of those are building blocks that that we need to be able to take in the lesson He has for me to share today from the final verses of this passage.

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.”

Verse 5 says that she did as she was told: no questions, no whining, no complaining and no procrastination.  She simply did as God had told her through the prophet.  How many times does God tell me to go in and shut the door and I just do it ?  Not only did she do it but so did her sons.  So rather they understood or believed the widow and her husband had raised them with enough respect to follow their mothers lead.  As they bring her the jars she continues to pour and the oil continues to flow.  She does not even look up from her task.  She doesn't stop to count how many they have left to fill nor does she begin figure the value of the jars that were already filled.  We don't know how many hours she had sat there pouring and pouring before her son says “There aren’t any more!” but as soon as he says that the oil stops flowing.  God had filled all the vessels that they had brought.  He didn't short  them one jar not did he have the oil to continue to flow with no vessel to contain it, which would have been a waste.  However, I think if she had had 10 more, 100 more or even 1000 more vessels the oil would have still been running. 

I love the song Vessel by Chris Sligh

The chorus is:

Make me a vessel that you can always use

No matter how you break me, what I win or what I lose

Let me be a vessel pure and holy,

perfect in your eyes

Lord hear me when I cry for you to make me a vessel.

Just as God fill all the vessels with oil that the widow and her sons brought to Him, he will fill us if we are willing to offer ourselves. 

Are you giving yourself as a vessel to be filled by Him?  Is there and area of your life that you are not offering ?  Are there others in your life that you need to be bring to the Lord in prayer that they begin to see themselves as jars molded by the Master and needing to be filled ?



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