2 Kings 4:1-7
"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.”"
We pass in this chapter from the turbulent and disordered picture of national life to a very different one descriptive of the experience of 'the good of the land', those who were of the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Nothing could point the contrast more clearly, or show the possibilities that attend the life of faith more graphically than this beautiful story. Here is the providence of God at work, in caring for and succouring for His own. We learn many lessons from it; not least that God's people may sometimes find themselves in great straits. Godliness does not always guarantee sunny skies, and when trouble comes it does not mean that God's love has ceased. Some experiences are meant to test and refine our faith. As someone has said, 'If the pilgrim's tent were not rudely shaken at times by winter storms, he might cease to long for the city which hath foundations.' In the life of a believer it is not trouble as such, but what he does in trouble, and how he reacts to it, that is the real issue. In this case, the widow woman did the one right thing - she spread out her distress to the Lord through the prophet, and she received speedy and instant succour. Simple, isn't it? And is not this often where we fail? We pray about our troubles, but it is possible to pray about them without really taking them to the Lord in prayer because in our praying we are so preoccupied that we never see beyond ourselves and our trouble to the Lord Who can help us. Might not this explain why we sometimes rise from our knees just as distracted and anxious as when we knelt down?