WHAT’S IN YOUR JAR? Part one…

2 Kings 4:1-7 “The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."
Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 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. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

A few observations:
I. She had nothing “except a little oil”.
How much oil are we working with? Working on ‘overload’, trying to do it all, making sure all bases are covered? Bound by perfection? Have a zillion lists and checking them off like a crazy person?
Do we run on ‘just a little oil’ and then wonder why God is not using us the way we think he should?
When we renew our mind (Phil 4:8-9; Romans 12:2; and re-prioritize our “lists”, bring them into alignment with God’s priorities, we then will be able to say, “If all I have is a little _______, then I want you, God, to use the little that I have to multiply it for your kingdom. My life is yours!
All God needs to work in our lives is “a little oil”.

II. Empty jars, not just a few but gather many then pour oil in them.
Empty jars attract dust and bugs. Unless used strictly as a decoration, empty jars are not ‘usable jars.’ God is not calling us to be decorations left on a shelf to look good or be reminded how “useful we once were”. Fruit left on a tree will eventually drop and rot, it won’t provide nourishment for anyone. Left uninhabited by the Holy Spirit our lives will eventually return to what we left behind, unnourished and rotted.
We will never experience the “springs of living water” that will yield the abundant life He has promised us if we don’t first empty those ‘things’ in our jars that are crowding God out. What needs to be emptied from the jar of your life before God can use you? Perhaps:
Guilt over a situation…
Disappointment in how others may view or treat you…
Consequences resulting from choices made by you or someone else’s choices that have affected you…
Living in disillusionment that your life was suppose to be_________by now.
Living in the past…
Jesus Christ has promised to cleanse our ‘jars’ from sin daily and fill them instead with the presence and power, the oil of the Holy Spirit. This can only come through daily communion with Father God (John 15).
This cleansing and communion also prepares His people, you and me, for works of service (not to add one more thing to our ‘to-do’ list) so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:12-14).
What is the ‘fullness of Christ’? His character displayed in our daily lives…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control to which there is NO LIMIT (Galatians 5:22-24).

I love the fact that she was told to gather “not a few but as many as you can”. We limit ourselves so much when we can’t see the potential God sees in us.
Surround yourself with people willing to challenge you to see the potential in your life that God sees. Potential that can be used for greatness in God’s kingdom. God is the Potter we are the clay. He has molded us to be used for His Kingdom (Romans 9:20-21).
God may use our jars in different ways and at different times in our lives.
We are not empty jars. God has been with us and has seen everything that has come through our jars even before we were born (Psalm 139).
When we allow Him to use heartaches, sickness and pain that have come into our lives then His Glory can be seen to those around us. (Romans 5:1-8)
Without purpose in life we will always be unsure and never have a sense of fulfillment.
"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. (The Message Mt. 5)
If we truly want to live a powerful and purposeful life, then we must allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with his oil…his power…his life…his joy.