Do you need to get your own oil?
How often do we hear the phrase, Get your own oil? What is this oil and how do we get it? Do you need to get your own oil?
Our lives seem filled with busyness these days. The hustle and bustle to be everything to everyone. So many are looking to us to fulfill some needs; our spouse, parents, children, jobs, ministry responsibilities, and the never-ending duties at home. We plan, strive, and still have unaccomplished tasks on our lists.
But what about us? What is the “one” thing we need? That “one” something that we so often say is #1, yet seems to be the “one” thing that we push to the end of our list, hoping to fit it in or thinking we will do it at the end of the day? Yet, when evening falls, we realize the laundry is still in the dryer, and the dishwasher needs to be unloaded. We still have that one task we promised our spouse we would get done before bedtime. Once again, our “one” thing is put on hold.
What is that “one” thing we need?
That “one” thing is our secret place time with God. The filling of our lamps to be filled up and ready for our Bridegroom King. Friends, is there anything else in our life that is more important than that? No, the answer is NO! Yet, it is the “one” thing we are often so willing to shuffle around and leave out of our busy schedules. Why is that?
Do you need to get your own oil?
In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about the ten virgins waiting to go into their Bridegroom. Now, we don’t know what their whole story or their lives before that night were like. But we know all ten of them were waiting for the Bridegroom to come. This tells us they were all ten believers. Five were prepared, their oil was full, and five had let their tank run dry. They were empty! We can just hear the five wise virgins saying, “Get your own oil!”
If the oil goes dry, the fire goes out
How many of us are like that today? We don’t know what was going on in the lives of the ten virgins before that night. Oh, but we can sure relate to the possibilities, can’t we? So often, we have such good plans and intentions, but we allow our overbooked schedules and busyness to let our tanks go dry.
No matter how good we trim the wick, the fire goes out if the oil goes dry! How full is your oil today?
We can plan and prepare all day and night, but if we don’t spend time in the secret place and get our own oil, our fire goes out, and we have no light left to find our way in the dark to enter with the Bridegroom King. When it’s time for the wedding, the Bridegroom won’t wait for us to clear our schedule and fill our tank.
Be watchful and ready
We have to be watchful and ready all the time. We can’t continually let our oil run dry, filling it up now and then. Over time, our wick can get old, dry, and rot away, needing to be replaced. The wick must be kept saturated in the oil to maintain the flame. Without the oil, it becomes dry and fragile, easily broken. If we are not careful, it will crumble and become useless. You can’t light a broken and crumbled wick.
When we allow the wick to become broken and destroyed from neglect, no amount of oil will restore it. We must first replace it. What’s the condition of your wick? Have you neglected it for far too long? How full is your lamp?
It’s time to check our lamps
My friend, it’s time to check our lamps. Does the wick need replaced or needs to be trimmed? Is your oil filled up, or are you running on an empty tank? We often borrow a cup of sugar from a friend when we are running low, but oil…oil is precious. You can’t have your friends’ oil, they paid a steep price for their oil, and it belongs to them. You have to get your own oil! Getting new oil takes sacrifice. Surrendering to the Lord in the secret place to fill back up and be ready day or night.
He is calling your name; can’t you hear Him? He wants to know you in the intimate place of kingdom relationship that only comes from time with Him. The oil He gives is so precious that it can’t be borrowed or bought with money and comes with the price of sacrifice and deep surrender. Are you ready to get your own oil today?
Prophetic Word today:
“I hear the Lord saying, “I am calling your name, can’t you hear me?” I have so many treasures to share and pour out upon you. Why won’t you come to me? I am longing to enter into an intimate place with you. I walk alone in the night, calling your name, knocking on the door of your heart, and yet you do not hear. My beautiful bride, please come into me. I want to be your everything, your refuge, and shelter, the one who stirs your heart and lights your fire deep within. The busyness you create is not a thing that will sustain you. The many commitments on your schedule are not life-giving. They do not contain the oil you desperately need to stoke the flames of the fire required to enter the wedding with me, your Bridegroom King.”
You can’t borrow oil from your friends when it’s time to enter for the wedding. The oil is precious and will cost you a steep price, but the rewards far outweigh the high cost. Come to me, and I will fill you up. I will restore and replenish your precious oil. I have a vast supply; you only need to surrender your busyness and come into the secret place of intimacy with me. Won’t you be my bride? I’m calling your name, can’t you hear my pleas? Come, come to me before it is too late. I am waiting for you.”
