The NIV 365 Day Devotional

What To Do In A Crisis

One day in 1961 an American student—newly arrived in England to begin his postgraduate work—visited the well-known poet and critic T. S. Eliot. As the young man was leaving, Eliot sought to impart some sympathetic wisdom.

“Forty years ago I went from Harvard to Oxford,” he mused. “Now, what advice can I give you?”

The student eagerly waited for the Nobel Prize winner’s wisdom. It finally came in the form of a question: “Have you any long underwear?”

When a new widow cried out to Elisha for help, the prophet’s response probably seemed just as absurd as Eliot’s words to that young student. The widow expressed her fear that without her husband to provide for the family, she could lose her sons to slavery. Elisha’s great wisdom came in the form of a seemingly odd question: “What do you have in your house?” (2 Kings 4:2).

Of course, we know the whole story. The widow had “a small jar of olive oil.” Per the prophet’s instructions, she took a first step and gathered empty jars from neighbors. And as the widow filled one jar at a time, God multiplied the oil. Imagine how her faith also multiplied after each jar was filled with oil.

Each time we sense God working in our circumstances, our faith grows. At the end of our own strength lies the beginning of his power. Thomas Merton once observed, “The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see.”

How has this been true in your own life? Can you recall a time when you took a first step in obeying God? At first it may have seemed confusing or without purpose. Looking back, can you see how he was guiding you all the way?

Taken from the NIV Men’s Devotional Bible.