Mixing Your Work & Your Calling

'Your servant has nothing there at all,' she said, 'except a little oil.'" - 2 Kings 4:2b

The Old Testament scene we are looking down upon here is this, a woman had her husband die. There was no way to fulfill her debts. Her creditors decided to take her two sons as slaves for payment of the obligations that still remained. She pleaded for assistance with the only man of God she knew.

"Is there anything in your house?" Elisha asked.

"Nothing at all," she said, "except a little oil."

Elisha then instructed her to go and collect all the empty jars that her neighbors might possess. "Ask for as many as you can," he instructed.

When the jars were collected, he instructed her to pour what little oil she had into the jars. The oil was more than enough to fill the jars. In fact, there was more oil than jars to fill. Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left - 2 Kings 4:7b

We work too hard at keeping the different areas of our life separate from one another. Division and balance are neither exclusive or mutual and God often mixes faith with the tangible. The widow believed she had no resources to meet her need. God said she had more than enough resources. She did not see the one jar of oil as a resource. It did not become a resource until it was mixed with faith. Her need was met when her faith was mixed with the practical step of looking at her personal resources as a source of commerce; to sell what she had in order to receive her needed income. Her obedience to God and her step of faith provided more than she anticipated. She was able to pay her debts and live on the money derived from the sale of all the oil.

We should expect our God to work through and in our work and through commerce to provide for our needs. It is wrong to place total trust in a job or a career without faith in God. More than that God often requires simple obedience to an act that seems ridiculous to the logical mind. It is this faith mixed with the practical that God honors.

Right now I have a problem that is perplexing to me. Are you in the same boat? Do you see no way of meeting your need?

My friends and loved ones let me suggest that God may have already given you the skills and talents as well as the natural resources to meet your need. However, He may be waiting on you. What is He waiting for? Your quieted spirit listening to His direction so He can provide guidance to you to mix believing in your relationship with Him, with faith to create a good result.

Ask God to show you the steps necessary to solve your problem. It is what I am doing today. Let's be willing to take the next step...together!

I remain...

in

HIS

grip!

~J~