Recently, there has been a growing concern worldwide about financial security. Specifically, I have observed many people struggling to pay their bills and preserve company resources and to find practical solutions to these and other financial issues. As I’ve been praying about this, I’ve noticed that similar challenges were common even during biblical times. In these instances, solutions always emerged when someone turned to God as the source of all good. 

An account that always draws my attention is the story of the woman who was widowed and became afraid that creditors would take her sons as slaves to pay off her debts (see II Kings 4:1–7). When she cries to the prophet Elisha for guidance, he asks her what she has at home. She says that she has nothing except a little oil. And he tells her: “Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.” 

My branch Church of Christ, Scientist, in Rio de Janeiro had to deal with limited supply and confront fear.