God, Our Strength When We Are Weak

A woman who had lost her husband was about to have her two sons taken as slaves to pay a debt. When she went to Elisha, he asked what she had in her house, and all she had was a single jar of oil. She poured that oil into each of the jars she had borrowed, and it kept flowing until there were no jars left.

God could simply have supplied what she lacked out of nothing, yet he chose to use the small thing already in her hand. In this way people come to know that God himself has stepped in, and they draw nearer to him in faith. That she went in, shut the door and obeyed was likewise God’s will, for he meant to establish that household in faith.

What we hold in our hands now may look unimpressive, but to God it is enough. The place where we are brought lowest and are at our weakest is in fact the place of grace where God works mightily. We must not treat small things as worthless, nor forget the Holy Spirit who is at work within them.