- Small faith in God makes a big difference in life.
- Most of the time, we think of ourselves as not worthy, which leads to comparison. When you compare yourself to others, you are stealing the identity God gave you.
- The more one looks at themselves, the more they see the limitation, but an individual’s limitations do not limit God. Your limitations do not limit God.
2 King 4: 1-7
1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
Principles from the chapter
1. When things go wrong, God is the only one that can make things right.
– Whatever happens in your life, God is more than enough. – You do not need more of something, you need more of God.
– A church is not a building; a church is the person that you are.
– Approach life with a heart that is available for God and to do his work.
2. God always works through what you have, not what you do not have.
– Quit looking at your pain and get more concerned about what you have.
– During a period of loss, people should be fixated on what they have to get a catalyst for a miracle of what they have lost.
– God does not need a lot to do a lot. He takes the little that one has to give a lot.
– God specializes in doing a lot with very little. (David defeated Goliath with a stone, Jesus fed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, Moses used a staff, which was miraculously turned into a snake).
3. An empty vessel is more valuable than a full vessel because God will fill it with what He wants you to have.
– God places value on the empty while the world places value on the content.
– If you want God to do a miracle for you, come empty to Him.
– As long as you surrender, God will work miracles for you.
– When you are empty, God is not only going to meet your needs, but he is going to make the blessings overflow.