4 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing.7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
2 Kings 4.1-7
Christmas is a time often associated with excess; food, drink, gifts, decorations, money…
But what if that is not you? What if you don’t have any of that, does that mean you don’t have a real Christmas?
Does the thought of going into a season of material excess fill you with anxiety?
In 2 Kings 4 we see a lady struggling to make material ends meet, let alone have an excess with which to feast or celebrate. Things are so bad that she is on the verge of having to give up her children to pay her debts. She is struggling to provide for her family and must have felt hopeless. She had debts and no resources to pay them.
She was encouraged to put her faith and trust in the faithfulness of God and in His provision.
When you think about it, this is what Christmas is all about. This season is not for material excess, but for celebrating the miraculous and world-changing provision God made for us by sending Jesus.
As the lady was encouraged to trust in God’s provision materially, I would encourage you this Christmas season to put your hope and trust in the greater provision He made for us, the answer to our anxieties, stresses, trials and tribulations, the real reason for the season, Jesus.
No matter your material resources, putting hope and trust in Jesus, not the temporal and temporary trappings of Christmas, gives us the guarantee of God’s provision, His abundant love, His forever acceptance, and His life-changing grace.
This devotional was originally written for It Is Well, check them out here.
James Travis 