When loss empties our life of a person, position, and provision we counted on, we wonder how in the world all the gaps will be filled. Audra Smith shares how she looked to the 2 Kings 4 widow who found little is more than enough in God’s faithful provision.
She was the wife of a man of God, faithfully serving the Lord alongside her husband. Until life shifted tragically and she became a young widow and single mom with no job, no money, no community, no resources, in debt up to her ears.
By the time we meet her in 2 Kings 4, she is a desperate woman. She doesn’t know who she is anymore, where to turn, or if God even hears her cries. She feels very alone, and very, very afraid.
How do I know how she felt? Because her story is also my story.
Our first 23 years of marriage and ministry brought the tragic death of our firstborn, two painful failed adoptions, five devastating miscarriages, a debilitating chronic illness, an excruciating ministry betrayal, a heartbreaking prodigal child, and a terrifying run-in with a life-threatening eating disorder.
I do not doubt that any one of those things would have taken me out if it had not been for the unshakeable faith of my husband.
By the time the 2020 pandemic hit, our faith and family both seemed to be pretty strong. God had used our trials to grow all of us exponentially. Our ministry was thriving. Our family was thriving. We were on the front lines, loving and serving our community as a family, being the hands and feet of Jesus. After all we’d been through, I thought we were finally going to reap the fruit of our labors.
Then, in September of 2021, I got sick. Jeremy insisted on taking care of me because that’s just the kind of husband he was. I recovered; he did not. On October 12, in a hospital 45 minutes from home—isolated from his family—my soulmate met Jesus face-to-face.
Suddenly, I was plunged into a depth of aloneness I never even knew was possible.
In just moments, I lost my partner, my pastor, my ministry, my income, my calling, my community, my anchor, and my identity.
Who was I now? What would I become? How would we survive? Could I be enough for my children? Would I even be here for them? Who would help me? Who would ever love me again?
My mind was reeling and I was paralyzed with fear.
And that’s how my mind’s eye sees this precious young prophet’s widow, who earnestly sought out Elisha in a final act of desperation. In brokenness and utter humility, she said something like this: My husband served you and God’s people faithfully, and now he is dead. You know how well he loved and honored the Lord! But he had debts, and he left me with no way to pay them. Now the debtors are coming to take my children!
Elisha, moved with compassion, responded with a question. “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” (2 Kings 4:2, NIV)
Elisha didn’t belittle her grief. He also didn’t immediately rescue her. He simply asked her to look at what she had left.
The woman said, “Your servant has nothing there at all…except a small jar of olive oil.”
This would be enough. “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side,” Elisha instructed. (2 Kings 4:3-4, NIV)
So, in faith, the widow did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars, and she kept filling them—one after another. Soon, every container was filled to the brim!
In the pouring out, the oil was multiplied.
“Bring me another one,” she told her sons who replied there were none left. Only then did the oil stop flowing. (2 Kings 4:6)
And when she had sold the oil, there was enough. Enough to pay the debt and enough to sustain her family.
It was not this widow’s great faith or spiritual strength that saved her children. She wasn’t extraordinary; we don’t even know her name. It wasn’t Elisha’s wisdom and compassion that saved them, either. It was God, taking a tiny, fragile, broken seedling of faith, and making it enough.
Four years ago, my fear was great and my faith was small. I could see no way through this valley. The mountains were too high, the waters too rough, and the way too hard.
He didn’t condemn me for grieving, nor did he rescue me from the valley-walk. Instead, he stepped into the shadows of suffering with me and gently asked me to offer the only thing I had left: a sacrifice of praise. It wasn’t much, but in the pouring out, he multiplied it beyond my imagination.
Only God can take a tiny, fragile, broken seedling of faith and make it enough.
He’s been sustaining my family for four years, and he will do the same for yours. He will take what you have, who you are, and what you bring to the table, and he will make it enough. In fact, he will make it more than enough.
Exceedingly, abundantly, immeasurably more.
But that’s not even the best part. Even more than his provision, our blessed Savior offers his presence. He will come to you in your place of loneliness and desperation and offer himself. There, you will never be alone.
There, you will discover that Christ is more than enough.
Audra Smith is a speaker, author, and grief coach. After twenty-five years as a pastor’s wife, women’s ministry leader, worship leader, and student ministry director, Audra suddenly became a widow, solo parent, and jobless. Her ministry, The Pastor’s Widow, reaches thousands internationally with gospel-centered hope. She’s Creative Director of 58 Foundation and MORE Women’s Conference, teaches high school Bible, history, and missional geography, and speaks at women’s events. Audra is mother to five on earth and one in heaven. She’s author of Instead: Things Your Grieving Friends Wish You Knew, But Will Never Tell You. Connect at The Pastor’s Widow.
