Holding It Together While Falling Apart — Lilly Grove
Now the wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, your servant, my husband, is [dead].
A creditor has come to take my two children as [slaves].
Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the [house]?
He said, go, sell the oil and pay your [debts], and you and your children can live on the rest.
- When have you felt trapped or at the end of your rope? How did you respond—realistically, pessimistically, or with hope?
- What crisis or burden are you carrying right now that you need to bring before God in honest prayer?
Somebody here this morning is holding it together while falling apart, problems with your [children].
You raised them the best you could. You brought them up in church, in the fear and the admonition of God, and they [walked] away from how they were raised.
Sometimes there's too much months for your [money].
I need somebody just for me to lean on to, to hold on to, to tell me that [tomorrow] is going to be a better day.
- Describe a season when you were 'holding it together while falling apart.' What kept you going?
- Who in your life might be silently struggling right now? How can you be a source of encouragement to them this week?
I've got some good news for you this morning. God knows our [problem].
God knows. All it doesn't know but the choir just told us he [cares].
If God brought you to it, God will bring you [through] it.
While her husband lived, she was always [full].
- Reflect on a time when God brought you through something difficult. How did that experience deepen your trust in Him?
- What burden in your heart feels too heavy right now? Write a prayer inviting God into that place.
Not only does God know our problems in verses two through four, God releases our [potential].
The Lord erased the widow's faith in herself by asking two questions that we ought to ask to pour this morning. What do you need and what do you [have]?
The only way we can benefit the poor is to help them to help [themselves].
No help from without can benefit when there is no willingness to self-help from [within].
- If God were to ask you right now, 'What do you need and what do you have?'—how would you answer honestly?
- What resource, gift, or relationship has God already placed in your life that you may have overlooked?
There are three vessels, three vessels that we have to bring if we want the oil of the Holy Spirit to be poured into us. You need, first of all, the vessel of [desire].
And then you've got to ask God to fill the vessel of [obedience].
And the last vessel you need to ask God to feel is the vessel of [expectation].
Calvary is God's [U-turn].
- Of the three vessels—desire, obedience, and expectation—which one feels emptiest in your life right now? Ask God to fill it.
- What miracle or breakthrough are you expecting God to do in your life? Write it down as an act of faith.