After what? After God thwarted Syria’s attack against Israel. Later Syria tried again, and the king of Israel forgot what God had done in the past and instead blamed the prophet Elisha for Syria’s oppression (see v. 31).
How quickly we are to forget what God has done! How quick we are to abandon His Word? How quick we are to let our eyes see the problems and instead of the Provider!
Elisha again spoke “according to the word of the Lord” and everything transpired “just as the man of God had spoken” (7:16-18).
As William Gurnall said, “If you have God’s good Word, you do not have to fear the world’s bad words.”
My prayer—O God, may I be quick to remember Your words and Your past victories; quick to look to You as my Provider and not to look to my problems.
I love the story in 2 Kings about the widow who comes to Elisha for help. Elisha tells her to borrow as many empty jars as she can, and then begin to pour the little oil she has remaining in her own jar into all the empty jars.
Miraculously, her one little jar fills all of the empty jars she had borrowed! It was only after the empty jars had been filled that her jar of oil stopped pouring. When she sold the full jars of oil, she was able to pay off her debts and have enough left over to take care of her and her sons.
We always have something.
In our eyes our something may appear as nothing. The widow originally told Elisha, “I don’t have a thing. Except a tiny bit of oil.”
But if God has given you something, that something is everything you need.
Your something is everything to you, and it’s a blessing to others too.
What do you have to do with your something? Pour it out on those who have nothing.
For how long? Until all the places of nothing are full. Once all the nothing is filled with something, you can stop.
And then what? Then you will find that your something with God’s blessing is everything you need!
God has given you something that those with nothing need. So perhaps a good prayer for all of us is—God, show me today what something You have given to me, and where You want me to pour my something into someone’s nothing.
I don’t have a clever introduction for this post, so let me just give you the conclusion right up front―God has more desire to give than most of us have desire to ask.
Elisha told King Jehoash that God was ready to give him complete victory over Israel’s enemy, but Jehoash had a hard time grasping this (see 2 Kings 13:14-19). He was hesitant to ask God for too much, so he only asked for a little. This made Elisha mad!
I think the reasons why Jehoash was timid in his asking of God are some of the same reasons we wrestle with today.
(1) Elisha was dying, so maybe he thought God’s Spirit would depart with him.
Maybe you’ve had a spiritual giant in your life, and when they died you thought, “Who is going to be able to pray for me now?” God doesn’t have favorites. He desires that all of us come to Him.
(2) Jehoash was sinful and didn’t think God would want to help him.
You can’t increase your value in God’s sight because you live perfectly. God loves you perfectly just as you are. Don’t get me wrong: the Holy Spirit will speak to you if you need to repent, but God doesn’t only listen to “perfect” people.
(3) Jehoash thought God had a limited supply, or he thought he had a quota in how many requests he could make of God.
The whole genie-in-the-lamp concept has crept into the mindset of too many Christians. We think our genie-God will grant us a limited number of wishes, or we think He will try to find a loophole to get out of a difficult request. God desires that we keep on asking Him, keep on seeking Him, and keep on knocking on His door (see Matthew 7:7-11).
God is glorified when we ask Him to do what only He can do.
God is pleased when we keep asking of Him largely.
Again. And again.And again.AND AGAIN!
I’ll say it again―
God has more desire to give than most of us have desire to ask
If you would like to read some other thoughts on prayer from our series The Prayers Of Elisha, please click here and check out all the links in the comments.
How would you fill in this blank: “The Lord gives, and the Lord ________ _________.”
I had some misconceptions about God when I was a kid. I didn’t want to pray, “God, You can use me however You see best” because I just knew He would send me to do something gross. Or we would sing a song like I Have Decided To Follow Jesus and one of the verses said, “Though none go with me still I will follow.” I didn’t really like that because I liked my friends and family; I liked my life just as it was.
Job was a righteous man, and some really bad things happened to him. He’s the one who said things like, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21), and, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10).
But there was still another 40 chapters to go! In the very last chapter of his story we read this―
After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)
In hindsight, I think Job might have said something different: “The Lord gives, and the Lord givesback!” But this insight would have come only after “Job had prayed.” Getting into God’s presence helps us capture the heart of God.
A grieving mother learned this when God gave her a son andgave back her resurrected son to her (2 Kings 4:8-37).
And then again when God gave her their family land andgave back the lost income (2 Kings 8:1-6).
The apostles learned this when Jesus gave them His presence and gave back a position of authority (Matthew 19:27-28).
We can also know that Jesus will give us a hundred times what we’ve given up for Him, and give us eternal life too (Matthew 19:29).
God never takes anything from us unless He intends to give back something even greater, something eternal, something unbreakable, something un-losable!
You will only begin to see this better when you get in His presence. “The object of secret prayer is to unite us to God that we may know His abiding presence with us” (Andrew Murray). It’s time to fill-in-the-blank differently!
I’ll be continuing our series on The Prayers Of Elisha this coming Sunday, and I would love to have you join me!
Sadly our country is anxious and worried. Based on the number of anti-depressants that are prescribed each year, we are a people dealing with a lot of issues!
When worry or fear begin to interfere with normal thinking and functioning, doctors call it anxiety disorder―that is, disorder in our lives creates the anxiety, and more anxiety creates even more disorder.
What causes anxiety in the first place? One of the main culprits is chronic stress. Things like marital problems, financial pressures, relationship breakdowns, emotional traumas trigger the fight-or-flight responses in our bodies. This leads to increased blood pressure and heart rate, interrupted sleep patterns, digestion issues … and all of this leads to the chronic stress, which leads to anxiety, which leads to even more disorder!
But here’s the great news―Getting into God’s presence could be your greatest stress reliever!
There’s a story in 2 Kings of a woman who is clearly stressed out. Her husband has died, she’s exhausted all her resources trying to settle up with creditors, she has sold nearly everything in her home, and one creditor is ready to carry her sons off into slavery. Talk about anxiety!
Elisha asks this widow two questions:
How can I help you? Jesus said that our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we even ask Him, but in the very next verse Jesus says, “This then is how you should pray…” (Matthew 6:8-9).
What do you have? God will use even what we think is insignificant to show His superabundance in our lives!
God did meet this woman’s needs. He gave her enough to pay off her creditor. But that wasn’t all―God also gave this family enough to keep on living stress-free!
God Who, by the action of His power that is at work within us, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think―infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams. (Ephesians 3:20, AMP)
Don’t try to carry all your stress yourself, cast ALLyour anxietyon Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
I’ll say it again―Getting into God’s presence could be your greatest stress reliever!
The fact is far too many of us get ourselves into hot water all on our own, and then we want to call on God like an insurance policy to bail us out. We usually have some reasonable-sounding excuses:
“It seemed like a good idea at the time”
“It was so practical and common sense I didn’t think I needed to pray about it”
“I’ve done this dozens of times before and never had any trouble.”
There’s a story in 2 Kings where three kings got together for a battle. To them it seemed like a pretty good idea―there were three of them going to war against just one king, they knew the terrain, so it would be an easy victory.
Except it wasn’t.
The Bible says that after a 7-day roundabout march, the three armies were out of food, out of water, stranded in the desert, and about to be defeated without the enemy ever firing an arrow or swinging a sword.
One king wanted to blame God. The king of Israel said, “Bad news! God has gotten us three kings out here to dump us into the hand of Moab.” (2 Kings 3:10, MSG). But fortunately the king of Judah thought to ask, “Isn’t there a prophet of God around that can call on God for us?” (v. 11).
Here’s one of the most amazing things: Elisha―the representative of God’s presence―was right there with them! Think about that … these kings hadn’t asked God for help, and hadn’t invited Elisha along, but there was the prophet right in their midst!
It’s a good reminder for us: God is ALWAYS with us. But it’s up to us to recognize Him and go to Him in prayer.
When these kings finally asked God for help with their water problem, Elisha said, “It’s an easy thing for God to provide water for you. You’ve prayed, now it’s time to prepare for His supply.” The armies were called on to dig lots and lots of ditches. God would send a supply of water without rain to take care of the troops. And if that wasn’t enough, God also said He would give them victory over their enemy. As Matthew Henry wrote, “God’s grants out-do our requests and expectations.”
Pray first. Pray continually. Pray always. And then when God tells you to dig ditches, get ready for His abundant blessings. But get the order right: Don’t dig and then pray; pray first, then dig!
If you’re in the Cedar Springs area, please join me next Sunday as we continue our series The Prayers Of Elisha.
Elisha was a prophet whose name means “God is salvation.” And God did show His saving, healing, sustaining power through Elisha in 28 separate miracles.
But here’s the cool thing to me: Elisha is a regular guy. He comes from an average family, from one of the lesser known tribes of Israel. Elisha was a farmer, and had a few guys working for him. Other than that, we don’t know much about his background. Elisha truly was an Average Joe.
Elisha is a perfect guy for us Average Joes to learn more about the power of prayer. What God did through Elisha, He wants to do through all of us too. Please join me this Sunday as we kick-off a new series called The Prayers Of Elisha, and get ready to see your prayer life grow.
There is an unusual story in 2 Kings about King Jehoash. Elisha the prophet was on his deathbed, Israel was morally bankrupt and on the brink of defeat. The entire Israeli army had been reduced to fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry. It was in this hour of desperation that Jehoash sought out the counsel of Elisha.
Elisha said [to Jehoash], “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
What made Elisha angry is what I believe makes God angry. Jehoash came to God when the situation seemed impossible, but he wouldn’t pray it through. It’s almost as if he felt like three times was enough to pray, and then he needed to take it from there.
God wants us to pray BIG, but He also wants us to pray LONG.
We need to keep striking the ground (or as Mark Batterson would say, keep drawing the circle) until God answers. God gave Jehoash a promise of victory, but Jehoash didn’t pray long enough to see it through.
What are you praying for? What promise has God given you? God is glorified when you place your request in His hands, and leave it there. Keep on praying. Keep on striking. Keep on circling until God brings about what He has promised!
To check out the others messages in this series on prayer called Praying Circles, please click here.
In our backyard kickball games, the competition is sometimes intense. Given the fact that our field is unusually shaped—a big rock for first base, a third base (the middle tree of a group of three trees) is closer to home plate than first base is, the neighbor’s fence jutting out into right field—there are sometimes disagreements. Imagine that!
Of course, the quickest way to resolve some of these disagreements is to call, “Do over!”
But do-overs never work out well. One team might be happy with the results while the other team still feels they got an unfair advantage to get their way.
So, too, with God. He does not allow do-overs. Ever. Nor would I want Him to allow me to have a do-over. There are things I have learned from painful episodes that have made me stronger, wiser, more empathetic, and more merciful than I would have been if I missed out on those experiences. If I could have called “do-over” I wouldn’t be the same person today.
In 2 Kings 6, the king of Israel wanted a do-over. He had an opportunity to kill some Aramean soldiers, but Elisha said, “No, give them dinner instead.” The entire Aramean army returned later and blockaded the capital city of Samaria, making for horrendous living conditions in the city. The king said, “If I only I would’ve rejected Elisha’s advice and killed those soldiers I wouldn’t be in this tough spot now. I want a do-over!”
But here’s what the king—and all of Israel with him—would have missed out on if they got their do-over. If the king got a do-over only a few Aramean soldiers would have been killed. But by not getting his do-over, the entire Aramean army was disarmed, defeated, and disgraced as they ran home scared and naked (see 2 Kings 7:5-7, 14-15).
NOT getting a do-over led to a greater victory! Not getting your do-over will also allow God to do something greater in you and through you. If you got your chance at a do-over for something in your past you wouldn’t be as strong, wise, empathetic, or merciful as you are today.
Check out what God says—
I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. (Jeremiah 29:11, The Message paraphrase)
And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God. (Romans 8:28, The Living Bible)
Don’t ask God for a do-over; instead, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He’s doing in your life because you didn’t get the do-over. I promise you that God is doing something far, far greater—instead of defeating a few enemies, He’s defeating whole armies!
Feel free to share what lessons you may have learned by NOT taking a do-over.
Have you ever noticed all of the different ways that God reveals Himself to people? He is original with every original person.
I love looking at the Aha! moments that people have. You know, the moments when the light comes on and they understand Who God is to them?
When Jethro heard how God delivered Moses and the Israelites from Egypt he said, “Now I know that the true God is greater than all other gods.”
When Elijah raised a dead boy back to life the boy’s mother said, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that you only speak His words.”
When Naaman was healed of leprosy he said to Elisha, “Now I know that there is only one true God.”
When David recalled all the ways God has delivered him from certain disaster he sang, “Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed.”
When Peter was delivered from prison by an angel he said, “Now I know that God did this.”
(check out the references for these examples by clicking here)
God reveals Himself uniquely to everyone because we’re all unique originals.
“Let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” —Oswald Chambers
Here’s the problem with God’s originality: We try to make our unique experience with God a universal experience for everyone else. We think that because He did it such-and-such a way for us that everyone ought to experience it the same way.
Wrong!
Think about the deliverance from lions in the Bible. In Samson’s case, God gave him supernatural strength to kill a lion with his bare hands; Benaiah went into a pit to kill a lion with his club; Daniel never even touched the lions, and they couldn’t touch him either.
Imagine if Samson was there with Benaiah: “Hey, brother, if you’re going to go after that lion, just wait on God to give you supernatural strength. If you really had faith, you would lose that club!”
Imagine if Benaiah and Samson were giving lion-killing advice to Daniel: “My friend,” Benaiah might say, “Please use my club.” And Samson would interrupt, “How many times do I have to tell you? No clubs!” Yet in Daniel’s case, God wanted the lions alive.
Perhaps you had your “Now I know” moment after a prolonged struggle in a particular area. Your tendency would be to tell others, “Get on your knees and pray and pray and pray. Pray really hard! It might take years, but God will eventually help you breakthrough.” Perhaps God wants to deliver someone else instantly.
Perhaps your “Now I know moment” came while reading from the King James Version of the Bible. Your tendency is going to be to hand out KJVs to everyone. Perhaps God is going to speak to someone through the New Century Version.
Let God be original with you. Let Him uniquely work with others too. Don’t make your “Now I know” experience the theology which rules everyone around you.
I’m so glad God is unique with every unique individual because each of us is a one-of-a-kind original!
“…it happened after this…” (2 Kings 6:24).
Have you ever noticed all of the different ways that God reveals Himself to people? He is original with every original person.
Craig T. Owens 