March 2019

We share the human experience with our families, friends and even strangers. Sometimes it seems like our troubles are one-of-a-kind situations that nobody can understand. But actually, there are no new problems. Everything we face is common to mankind and the human experience. (What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9.) Our struggles with depression, disease, debt, death, moral depravity and a host of other common issues remind us that we cannot avoid challenges that are common to the human experience.

During the rough times we can always look to our one and only eternal source for everything – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus cares about our struggles, and He will carry us through the storms of life. In 2 Kings, chapter 4, a widow confronted the prophet Elisha with her human experience. Her husband had died, and he left the family deep in debt. The bill collectors were coming to make her sons slaves in order to settle the debts. She faced a future with no husband, no children and no money. This meant homelessness or starvation for a woman in her day.

Facing desperate circumstances, the widow turned to God’s prophet. Elisha showed compassion by asking how he could help, and then he shifted to a more spiritual question. Elisha asked the woman what she had in her house. The woman responded that she had nothing but a little oil. The prophet instructed her to borrow all the empty jars she could from her neighbors. He specified a lot of jars and not just a few. Then Elisha told her to shut the door and start pouring oil into the empty jars. The woman did as instructed. When the last jar was filled the oil stopped flowing. Elisha then instructed the woman to sell the oil, pay the debts, and live on the balance of the money. By surrendering what she had and obedience, God multiplied her resources so she had more than enough money to take care of her family.

When our human experiences are too much to bear, our Savior stands ready to carry us through. He asks that we cast our cares on Him, just as the woman presented her problems to the prophet. (Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7.) He also asks, like Elisha, what do we have that we can surrender to His will? In return, Jesus delivers us from the often crushing weight of our human experience. Deliverance may not come with a shiny bow or sparkles, but it pours out like precious oil that fills the empty places in our souls, and it sustains us no matter how rough the road.

We can have confidence that regardless of what this human experience brings our Lord will see us through.