What do you have in your hands? What if the thing you keep overlooking is exactly what God wants to use?

Imagine being a widow with creditors knocking at your door and no way to pay your debts. You have almost nothing left. Then someone asks you what you have, and your answer is a little jar of oil.

What difference could that possibly make?

One little jar of oil wasn’t going to come close to paying her debts. At least, that’s how it must have looked to her.

We read her story in 2 Kings 4. This widow is facing a desperate situation, and the prophet Elisha asks her a simple question:

“What do you have?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replies (2 Kings 4:2).

And there it is. What she considers almost nothing becomes the starting point for God’s provision.

Elisha tells her to borrow empty jars from her neighbors, go inside with her sons, and begin pouring oil into the containers. As she pours, the oil keeps flowing. Jar after jar is filled until there are no more containers. She sells the oil, pays her debts, and has enough left to support herself and her sons. God took what she already had and used it to meet a need she could not meet on her own.

Throughout the Bible, we see God using seemingly insignificant things to accomplish extraordinary purposes. He used Moses’ staff, a few stones in David’s hand, and a boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. The lesson isn’t that the things we possess are magical or that God will always multiply our resources in the way we expect. It’s that what seems small or inadequate to us is never beyond God’s ability to use.

We may look at our resources and see limitations, but God sees possibilities.

• Maybe you don’t have the time you wish you had.
  BUT what if God could use the time you do have?
• Maybe you don’t have the influence you wish you had.
  BUT what if God could use the influence you do have?
• Maybe you don’t have the resources you wish you had.
  BUT what if God could use the resources you do have?
• Maybe you don’t feel particularly gifted.
  BUT what if God could use the gifts you do have?

We often find ourselves saying, “If only I had more time, more money, more influence, or more ability, I could make a difference.” Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question. What if we started asking, “Lord, what can You do with what I already have?”

You may not have much in your hands today. Your time may be limited. Your resources may seem small. Your abilities may not feel impressive, but don’t be too quick to dismiss what you have.

For the widow, that little jar of oil looked insignificant until God used it to change her family’s circumstances.

You don’t have to wait until you have more to begin making a difference. Start with what you have, offer it to God, and trust him with what happens next.

What do you have in your hands today that God could use?