By Brother Deji Oyawoye
Bible Passage: Philippians 3:13, 2Kings 4:1-7
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before," – Philippians 3:13
The story of the woman in our passage brings to light certain things. She had a problem and a flask of oil. What is the correlation between the problems she had and the flask of oil available? When Elisha asked her what she had, she said nothing but a flask of oil. We all have something or a situation and something God has placed in us which might not correlate in any way. There is often no link between the size of the thing we have and the magnitude of the issue that is before us.
We must realise however that for anything we do, there’s always a potential to do more. The woman came from something (one jar of oil) to several jars of oil. Despite the fact that there’s a potential to do more for everything that we do, there are also limitations to everything. Our limitations include the flesh; the roaring (going to and fro of the devil) and our own or people’s perceptions. There’s always the potential to stretch ourselves. The further you push it, the further you see yourself do. We are often limited by our own vision and the walls we’ve placed around ourselves. Doing enough is not sufficient, doing the best is not enough, we have to do all that we can.
What Do We Need To Do More Of?
1. Love more. Familiarity they say brings contempt, so the tendency is that the more we know each other the more difficult it is to love each other. Loving more helps us to serve more (Philippians 1:9-10, 1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1, 4-8).
2. Grow More. We need to grow towards God, grow in the things of the spirit. Spiritual growth is not the responsibility of your church, it is every individual’s responsibility (Ephesians 4:14-15, 1 Peter 2:2).
3. Study More. You can only understand better about God, what He expects of you and even living the Christina life by studying more. It is in the word of God that you find revelation (Daniel 9:2).
4. Pray More. To make conscious, deliberate and intentional effort to know more about God.
5. Know God more. We need to make efforts not just to fight battles in the name of Jesus , to seek growth and promotion with the word of God and the name of Jesu but we must know Him more (Philippians 3:10, John 10:27).
How Do We Get to Do More?
1. Know your limit. When you know your limit, it helps you go in the right direction to get answers. Identifying your limitations is your first step towards overcoming them (2 Kings 4:1-7, Mark 9:23-24).
2. Take the step forward. This could mean being vulnerable. All you need to do sometimes is to appear with your little and God will cover the rest just like the boy with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes came forth.
3. Practice. Loving, growing, studying and praying more gets easier with practise. Make this a habit.
4. Just keep doing no matter what. Do not let discouragement set in (John 2:1-8).