“You are blocking your blessing!” This is what one friend told me a few years ago was the reason why I was not receiving God’s blessings in one particular area of my life. She said that instead of focusing on faith, I focused too much on my doubts. To be honest, I’d started to doubt God, especially when it came to this one particular area of my life. At first, I agreed with her about the impact that faith had on receiving God’s blessing.
However, it wasn’t until I read story of The Widow’s Olive Oil from the Old Testament that I realized that receiving God’s blessing has more do with it than just having faith. First of all, we must have faith in order to be willing to admit that we need a blessing. But we also need to prepare by having the right amount of faith.
The Widow’s Olive Oil story found in 2 Kings 4 begins with the widow asking the prophet Elisha to help her with her finances. When he asks her how he can help and what she has, she says that all she has is olive oil. In 2 Kings 4:3 Elisha responds by telling her “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 does what appears to be everything Elisha instructs her to do with the exception of one thing: She does not have enough jars for the abundance of oil that follows. In verse 6 her son replies “There is not a jar left.’ Then the oil stopped flowing.”
Were her blessings literally stopped because of her unbelief illustrated by her not having enough jars? Some say that she only partially obeyed the prophet’s instructions which is still disobedience. Others say that what stopped her blessings (the oil flowing) was that she did not gather enough jars because though she had faith (as symbolized by the number of jars), she didn’t have enough when it was necessary. She believed that the oil would flow but still doubted how much it would actually flow. Interestingly, she had faith to reach out to Elisha and even had enough faith to follow his instructions. Yet, even after the oil stopped, she had faith and went back to the prophet who told her to sell the oil she had bottled and to use what remained to take care of her debts. She even had enough oil to provide for her family’s future needs.
Like the widow, we often have no problem acknowledging God’s instructions and even obey in faith to the best of our abilities. Yet, sometimes, blessings may stop simply because we did not adequately prepare to receive them in their fullness. I think the widow’s story is much like how some of us respond when we want blessings from God but struggle with receiving them in their promised abundance.
Shewanda Riley is a Dallas, Texas-based author of “Love Hangover: Moving from Pain to Purpose After a Relationship Ends” and “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A Book of Prayers for Writers.” Email her at preservedbypurpose@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @shewanda.