What is your pot of oil?

  We went through some tough times in my cleaning business, and winter was always the worst of times.  In November our propane ran out completely and I put the minimum 100 gallons in the tank.  In February my wife asked if I had looked at the propane recently, so I went and checked.  We were at 5% on a 250 gallon tank, so that meant we had approximately 12.5 gallons left and it was winter time.  We had no money and our whole house ran on propane.  Central heat was propane, propane cook stove, propane hot water heater, and propane dryer.  With six kids at home, we went through a fair amount of propane even though where we lived in Louisiana has fairly mild winters.



  I didn't know what to do as my business was dead.  I started praying asking God to supply our need. I was reading in the bible this passage
[2Ki 4:1-7 KJV] 1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. 2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, [even] empty vessels; borrow not a few. 4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. 5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought [the vessels] to her; and she poured out. 6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, [There is] not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

 After I read this passage, the thought popped into my head: "What is your pot of oil?"  I replied, I don't know Lord, what is it?  This was my continual perplexing thought each day as I watched the propane drop 1% each day, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%.

  I walked around my place asking the Lord "What IS my pot of oil?"  As I was thinking, I thought perhaps the oil was referring to my talents.  Perhaps the Lord wanted me to pour out my talents and he would multiply them.  But what?  Nothing came to mind.

  Next I thought perhaps it is my tools.  Maybe God wants me to sell my tools.  I went out to my shop and laid hands on each major tool, asking if the Lord wanted me to sell them.  Each tool: "No, No, No."  I was confident that God would supply the need, but I had no idea how!

  The gauge said 0% and my wife said "Honey, have you checked the propane? The stove is giving off that funny smell it gives when we run out of propane."  Still no money to buy propane and the Lord hadn't showed me what my pot of oil was yet.

  I was well familiar with the fact that the Lord often acted one day past too late, so I fully expected that perhaps we would run out of propane before he blessed us with the money to purchase more.  This time the Lord chose to act differently than he had in the past however.

  The next day the stove was still giving off the funny smell and the gauge was still on 0%, but we were still cooking meals, taking hot baths, drying a lot of clothes.  The remainder of the week this continued on, and I was getting a bit antsy as to how the Lord was going to provide the propane.

  The end of February came, and still no money to purchase propane.  Everything was still working though!  We almost dared not believe what was happening even as the running out of propane smell went away.  I checked the tank and it was still on 0%.

March went by.
Then April.
May.
June.
July

In August it had been 6 months, and everything was still working.  Also this entire time my business had been very slow and I had no extra to purchase propane.  Towards the end of August I was working in a building at 5:30 am when the news paper was delivered.  I picked it up and brought it inside and as my work was done I browsed through it.  In the classified section an ad caught my eye "100 pound propane bottle $20".  I immediately felt the Spirit of the Lord quicken me to purchase it and I had $20 (but no more).

  I waited til 6 something to call, as early as I dared to disturb the people and they confirmed that they indeed had the 100 lb cylinder (about 23 gallons) and that it was full of propane and still available.  I told them I would take it and be there in 30 minutes.  As I was driving to pick it up, my wife called and told me that the house had just run out of propane.  I told her not to worry, the Lord had just supplied what we needed and I'd be home in an hour.

  When I got home I hooked up the bottle, bled the lines, and we once again had propane.  We had gone over 6 months with no propane yet everything functioned!!  The new bottle lasted 3 weeks.  When it ran out, I had earned the money to purchase another 100 gallons of propane.

  My pot of oil was my propane!  I never in a million years would have dreamed that THIS is how the Lord would supply our need.  It was impossible.  God doesn't do things like that.  Or does He?  If He is the same God yesterday, today and forever, and He did it several thousand years ago, why can't he do it today?

  What is your back to the wall about today?  Are you facing an impossible situation that there is no way the need can be supplied?  Stand in faith believing that He will supply the need.  Not in the way we think, but in His own way.