All God Needs Is Your NOTHING…
On Sunday, our associate pastor gave an absolutely epic sermon.
One that I could relate to with my whole heart because I did exactly this without realizing it in 2016.
It revolved around the story in 2 Kings chapter 4. A widow has creditors breathing down her neck, threatening to take her sons as slaves unless she pays back a debt that her now-dead husband owed them.
So she goes to Elisha for help.
He asks her what she has in her house.
She says nothing, only a small jar of olive oil. I looked up what that word really meant and it really was small. We might use the word flask.
So it was literally only a few ounces of olive oil. No big Costco-sized jug of olive oil, ha ha!!
(I love how God does the most miraculous things over and over again in the Bible with the tiniest bit of provision. It would not have seemed NEAR as amazing if she had started with a Costco-sized jug…)
He tells her to borrow empty jars from ALL her neighbors and warns her, “Do not gather just a few.”
Then he told her to shut the door behind her and her sons and keep pouring oil from her TINY flask until ALL the big jars are filled.
She kept pouring and there kept being more oil UNTIL she ran out of jars. Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay the debt. And live off the rest.
Our pastor’s points were these:
Obedience precedes provision.
God fills what you bring Him.
Your nothing is enough for God.
I’ve said this many times, but back then, I kept feeling like God was saying over and over, “go in the strength you have” like He said to Gideon.
That was a LAUGH. I HAD no strength.
My boys carried my purse; I’d use a grocery cart as a walker. I recall one day was so bad, I loaded the washer one sock at a time because trying to lift a basket or even a handful of clothes to dump it in was FAR too painful.
But I was obedient to the call to go in the TINY bit of strength I had.
I brought my completely pathetic self to Him.
More accurately… I brought my pathetic self completely to Him. I did not hold back. I made absolutely zero parameters around what I wanted Him to make my life look like.
And what do you know, He began to fill me with HIMSELF.
HIS strength. HIS purposes. HIS plans.
And boy, have the last 10 years been HARD.
But WOW have they ever also been beautiful…
Friend, whatever you are walking through right now, all God needs is your “NOTHING.”
If you feel weak, spent, or absolutely DONE, give Him that.
If you're celebrating and life is awesome, make double sure to give Him that. (Israel ALWAYS went astray as soon as they started to forget where the goodness they were experiencing truly came from.)
I know sermons are supposed to have 3 points, but I really feel like we need make a 4th, ha ha, to dig in to 3 words Elisha said BEFORE she was supposed to start pouring:
Shut. The. Door.
Why would he tell her to shut the door behind her and her sons?
Because not everyone will support you in what God is telling you to do. The vast majority will try and fill you with doubt and tell you it isn't possible.
Listen to me:
Satan wants to fill your mind with what’s “reasonable.” aka “Sweetie, God can’t do this so lower your expectations…”
God wants to fill your heart with faith, your mind with belief, and soul with joy as you watch Him do the impossible.
Tell Satan to kick rocks. SHUT. THE. DOOR. to naysayers and doubters.
And keep pouring your tiny bit of oil until God says you’re done.
I just want you to know that whatever you are praying and believing for, I am on YOUR side of the door.
I’ll be like one of the sons, moving the full jar out of your way so you can keep pouring out of that tiny few-ounce flask until ALL the jars are FULL.
I’m praying with you!!
In passionate purpose,
Dorothy
P.S: Here’s a prayer to help you:
Father,
I come to You the way the widow did. Empty-handed. Debt I didn't ask for pressing down on me. And only a tiny flask of anything left to offer.
But I'm bringing it. All of it. Without conditions. Without telling You what I want my life to look like on the other side.
I am shutting the door. Right now, in this moment, I am shutting it. On every voice that says this is too far gone. On every thought that says You won't come through this time. On the "be reasonable" lies that have kept me small when You have been calling me forward.
So here I am. Pour into and through me. Fill every empty jar. Every dry place. Every broken dream. Every area I've given up on. Fill it with YOU. Your strength. Your purposes. Your plans.
Reveal to me who is on MY side of the door, the people who will believe with me and not against what You want to do.
And when the oil starts to flow, and I believe, LORD, that it will, let me not forget where it came from. Let me never mistake Your provision for my own strength. Let me keep my hand on that flask and my eyes on You until every single jar is full.
I don't know what the other side looks like. But…
My nothing is Yours.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.