The NIV 365 Day Devotional
What Does it Mean to Trust God to Provide for Me?
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 small jar of olive 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 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.”2 Kings 4:1-7
The easy answer is that it means believing God will care for us. But what’s harder is living and acting confidently in the knowledge of God’s provision.
Repeatedly in the Bible we see believers told to not just believe God will provide but to faithfully act in complete trust that provision is coming. In 2 Kings 4, a poor woman followed Elisha’s seemingly weird instructions and was blessed by her faithful actions.
Allison learned a similar lesson when rappelling in gym class. Here’s her story: “I had to let myself fall —and hope my classmate holding the rope would safely lower me to the floor. Suddenly I thought about my occasional hesitation to trust God. So often I’ve found it hard to believe that God would see me through times of need. At that moment in gym class, it felt like God was saying, ‘Trust me, Allison. I know what I’m doing. Let go of the wall.’
“I took a couple of breaths and pushed away. Before long, I was standing next to my classmate with my feet planted on the floor. I thanked God for using this situation to remind me that he will always be there for me —no matter what. I can trust him.”
Taken from the NIV Quest Study Bible for Teens.