The second widow: a story of empty containers

Last week I told you that I had been reading the stories of two widows. The second widow's story is found in 2 Kings 4: 1 - 6. This one only has “a small jar of oil” when the story begins, but the prophet Elisha tells her to go around and borrow as many empty containers as possible from her friends and neighbours. So the woman goes around everyone she knows and gathers as many jugs and jars as she can. Then she starts to pour from her little jar of oil, and the oil miraculously just keeps flowing and flowing. I can imagine that this woman’s friends were just as excited as she was to hear about this miracle and to know that they had been part of making it possible.

As I prayed about this story, I realised that I had been feeling embarrassed to keep on asking people to pray about my financial situation - about the fact that I still don't have sufficient monthly income to cover my living costs and ministry costs when I move to Spain next month. I think I sometimes fear that speaking about finances would offend people – that they would think I want them to feel sorry for me, or that they would feel manipulated and think I’m “hinting” that I need money. But this isn’t the case at all. I haven’t felt that God is telling me to ask anyone for money, but I have felt that I’ve to keep asking for prayer. I am very dependent on people’s prayers in this time of stepping into something new, something that is just much “too big” for me financially. In the story of the second widow, she didn’t ask her neighbours to give her the oil that she needed to live on. What she actually did was to ask them for “empty containers,” and then it was God who filled the containers for her. I felt God showed me that people’s prayers are like the “empty containers” that those neighbours gave to the woman in the story. In the NIV translation, Elisha specifically tells the widow, “Don’t ask for just a few; ask for as many as you can” - because when the containers ran out, the oil ran out too.

As I read this story, I felt God put on my heart that I am not just to ask once or twice for prayer, but I am to keep on asking for as many “empty containers” as possible; I am not to feel embarrassed about asking people to pray for my financial needs - because I’m not asking them for oil, I’m asking for their empty containers - and these people will share in the miracle: the blessing of seeing answered prayer when God fills the containers.

I’m sure that the people who gave containers to this widow had their faith boosted by seeing God do a miracle and knowing that their containers had been part of it. If you are one of the people who has committed to partner with me in prayer, I'd like to say a really big thank you for that. I promise that I'll let you know the exciting story of how your empty containers get filled up by God.