Soar with the Eagles or Squawk with the Eaglets?
In our day, things are changing rapidly. Not all those changes are bad, but not all are good either. One of the trends we see changing in the church is the consumerism of the church. For many people, they have turned the church into another item on their “to do” list for the weekend. They take their computer to be repaired. They drop it off broken and want it fixed. They drop off their dry cleaning and want it cleaned. They go to church and want to be cleaned there as well. They figure they pay money to have their computer worked on, clothes cleaned, and souls ministered to, so they have done their part.
A story in the Bible illustrates how things SHOULD be in this area instead of what they are changing to become. It is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7. Take a moment, find your Bible, and read that story. There is a woman who was in debt, and she had lost her husband. The creditors were coming to take away her sons into slavery to pay the debts and she was desperate for help, so she went to the man of God (Elisha) and asked for help.
Much like Jesus’ response at the wedding of Cana, Elisha asks, “What do you want me to do about it?” This was not an uncaring response, but one of getting the woman to look at what she was asking because he had a plan for her to be blessed, but it was going to come from God through her efforts and not just be given to her by the holy man.
The woman brought her crisis of faith to him and cried out to God through him, and he asked, “What do you have in your house?” She was honest enough to tell him that all she has left is a little bit of oil. This would probably been olive oil and, while useful and valuable, this little she had was not enough to do anything significant (or so she thought).
God, through Elisha, told the woman to go home and gather up tons of vessels and pour the oil into the vessels and the need would be met. If this were to happen today, the widow would have gotten mad at the church and bad mouthed it to her neighbors saying she had gone for help and they would not help. She would have called the preacher uncaring and the people unloving because she was expected to participate in her own provision. After all, if you loved me, you would just give me what I need, right? Not in this case. The woman had a call to action, and she had to choose if she is going to obey or not.
The widow gathered up all the containers her sons could find or borrow, and she poured oil into them until there were no more containers and then the oil stopped flowing. Through this provision, her debts were paid, she had enough to live on and her sons had enough to live on as well. Had she refused to participate, she would have missed the blessing.
Sadly, many people, Christians alike, are missing blessings every day because we are not participating with God in His provision. Like baby eagles, we want to sit in the comfortable nest, open our mouths and squawk about what we need, what we want and when we want it, but we don’t want to do the hard work of leaving the nest, learning to fly, and experiencing the thrill and joy of participating in being so much more. We just want our pastor, church family, friends, family, and others to come along and vomit up the blessings they have received so we can have our share when we could have so much more.
How about you? Do you have a friend or family member that you would like to see come to Christ? What are you doing to share with them? Do you wish you understood the Bible more? What are you doing to study and learn? Wish you saw more answered prayers? Are you praying more? Wish you could resist temptation? Are you memorizing God’s word? Wish your finances were better? Are you trusting God through tithing? On and on the list could go, but the bottom line is this: are you going to Squawk with the eaglets or Soar with the eagles?