Make Room for What God Is About to Do

In today’s Devotion, Dianna Hobbs encourages believers to prepare for what God is about to do. Through her son’s first football season and the widow’s empty jars in 2 Kings 4, she shows how faith expressed through obedience makes room for God’s provision.

Photo: Kevin Carden/Your Daily Cup of Inspiration

In 2018, our oldest son, Kedar, played his first season of youth football, and it was tougher than he imagined. He was new to defense and still learning how to get past the offensive line. He understood his assignment. If he could break through and tackle the quarterback before the ball was thrown, he could stop a play in its tracks. Knowing what he needed to do and believing he could actually do it were two different things.

Then one day, he broke through.

“The first time I broke through the line, I was so shocked,” Kedar recalled. “If you’re not expecting to break through, when you do, you have no clue what to do.”

I’ve thought about those words many times. When we spend a long time pushing against an obstacle, we can grow more accustomed to resistance than progress. We pray for doors to open while bracing for another disappointment. We ask God to change our circumstances, yet struggle to imagine what life might look like if He answers. And when the opportunity finally comes, we stand there like Kedar, surprised that it actually happened.

The widow in 2 Kings 4 faced a situation that looked impossible to overcome. Her husband, who belonged to the company of the prophets and revered the Lord, had died and left her with debts she could not pay. Worse, a creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves. Under the debt-servitude practices of that time, her family faced the loss of its freedom.

Desperate, she cried out to the prophet Elisha. Before giving her instructions, he asked, “Tell me, what do you have in your house?” (2 Kings 4:2, NIV).

“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she answered, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

How many times have we said something similar? We measure the size of our problem against what’s in our hands and conclude it could never be enough.

Elisha was interested in the very thing the widow mentioned almost as an afterthought. He told her to borrow empty jars from her neighbors, then added something significant: “Don’t ask for just a few” (2 Kings 4:3, NIV).

She had a debt she couldn’t pay, two sons whose freedom was threatened and only a little oil in the house. Now she was supposed to go through the neighborhood collecting empty containers. She had every reason to feel overwhelmed. Still, she obeyed.

Elisha told her to shut the door behind herself and her sons, pour the oil into the borrowed jars and set each full one aside. Her sons brought her the jars, and she kept pouring.

Notice that she gathered the jars before the oil multiplied. There was no visible evidence that the little she had would be enough. She had received a word through the prophet, and she acted on it. That is faith expressed through obedience. The power to multiply the oil belonged to God. Her part was to follow the instruction in front of her.

As she poured, one jar filled. Then another. And another. The same small supply that seemed so inadequate kept flowing until every borrowed vessel was full.

“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” (2 Kings 4:6, NIV).

Scripture doesn’t record how many jars she gathered or how much oil she received, only that God provided enough to meet her family’s need.

The widow returned to Elisha for direction, and he told her, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left” (2 Kings 4:7, NIV).

What a remarkable turnaround! The household that seemed headed for ruin now had the means to pay its debt, keep its sons and live on what remained. God provided for the immediate crisis and for the life beyond it.

Friend, consider what God has already placed in your hands. Perhaps there is an application you need to submit, a conversation you need to have, a skill you need to develop or a plan you’ve been afraid to make because previous efforts ended in disappointment.

You may have more room to move than you realize.

While you do what you can, keep trusting God with what you cannot. The widow gathered the jars and left the flow of the oil to God. She followed His direction one step at a time, long before she could see how her debt would be paid. Faith gives us courage to take the next step before we know how the whole story will unfold.

What don’t you possess enough of today? Knowledge? Skills? Finances? Courage? Confidence? Opportunity? Strength to keep going? Whatever you lack, God will supply. Trust Him.

To refuel your faith, I’m stirring this assurance from the apostle Paul as the sweetener in your cup of inspiration: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, ESV).

As you drink down the contents of your cup, meditate on this. The Greek word translated “supply” is plēroō, which means to fill, make full or fulfill. Paul wrote these words to believers who had generously supported his ministry, assuring them that the God who sustained him would also provide for them.

His confidence rested in the riches of God, whose resources far exceed our own.

Your confidence should rest there, too.

Now let’s pray.

God, sometimes disappointment causes me to lower my expectations and lose sight of what You are able to do. Today, I ask You to renew my faith. Help me recognize what You’ve already placed in my hands and give me wisdom to use it well. Show me where I need to prepare, where I need to act and where I need to patiently trust Your timing. I believe You are able to make a way, even when I cannot see one. In Jesus’ name, Amen.