It defies common sense but conforms to heaven’s logic. If you need more, pour what you have on others.
Chapter 4 of 2 Kings begins with a desperate woman. She’s a widow of one “of the sons of the prophets” whose husband “feared the Lord” (v 1). Obviously, fearing God doesn’t exempt you from trouble in life. She tells Elisha, “the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” Israel had indentured servitude where people could work off debt by serving the creditor. But the boys couldn’t, in that situation, support their mother. Here we see the way God deals with the problem of powerlessness. Elisha asks, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Her response? “Nothing…but a jar of oil” (v 2). How often this is the case. In hard times, we only notice what we don’t have. Like the Christian businessman who told a friend, “I’ve lost everything.” “Your wife and children have turned against you?” “Well, no.” “You’ve lost the indwelling Spirit, Christ as your Savior, God as your Father, heaven as your home?” Of course not! The pot of oil in Scripture represents the Holy Spirit in His many ministries. Even in the bleakest times we know, “having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:13-14). Though not exempt from trouble, we are guaranteed the Spirit is with us through it. She was to ask her neighbors for their empty vessels. Christian, you may have just a jar of oil. Many neighbors don’t have even that! Then, with the doors closed, she and her boys began pouring the oil into the neighbors’ pots. Soon everyone in town could acquire oil, the debt was paid, and there was enough to “live on the rest” (2 Ki 4:7). Pour out what you have on others. That’s how heaven’s bounty fills your life.