Unwavering Faith
“So
he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.”
And
she said, “It is well.” – 2 Kings
4:23
Faith is often described as belief that’s
not based on proof, or confidence in what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1 says that it is “the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.” Consider
an egg. We don’t see what’s inside, yet don’t
throw the egg out, doubting what’s inside.
We plan to use it. We expect when
we crack it open to see a yolk and a white inside. We have confidence in what we do not see, and
expect what cannot yet be proven while we hold the egg in our hand.
Great faith is seen by a woman in 2
Kings 4:8-37, that we only known as a “notable woman” of the Shunammite
tribe. She was “notable” because of her was
her character and her faith. When we
read of her we learn that she is happy serving God, and trusted by her husband.
The prophet Elisha often travelled by
her house. When he did, she would feed
him. But one day she made a request to
her husband that would inflict fear and suspicion in most husbands. She asked him to make a room for the prophet
in their house, complete with bed, table, chair, and lampstand. Most men would have questioned why their wife
wanted to move another man into their house.
But the fact that her husband did not question her, and created the room
for Elisha, says that he found her trustworthy as well.
Elisha, wanting to repay her for her service
to God and him, called her to him, and spoke a blessing into her life, saying “About this time next year you shall embrace
a son.” Now at this time, her husband had already aged, and she had never
had children. She replied to Elisha out
of disbelief, saying “No, my lord. Man of
God, do not lie to your maidservant!” But in a year’s time, exactly as Elisha
had said it would happen, she had a son.
How much she must have loved this child, being her only child, and a
blessing from God.
The son grew to be several years old,
and from what we read he was most likely of around preschool age. One day he was helping his father in the
fields and he began to complain “My head!
My head!”. He came back to the house, sat on his mother’s lap till around
noon that day being comforted, and then the unspeakable happened. This dear son died.
Consider what the Shunammite woman
does and says at the death of her only child.
She does not wail and cry.
She does not change into sackcloth and
cover herself in the ashes of mourning.
She does not prepare a grave.
She does not call her husband into the
field and tell him of his son’s death.
Instead, she lays her dead son on the
prophet’s bed in her house, and closes the door.
She goes to her husband and says “Please send me one of the young men and one
of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.” When her husband asks why she’s going to see
the prophet, even though it’s not a New Moon or the Sabbath day, all she says
is “It is well.”
“It
is well”. Three small words that
tell us she had unwavering faith. In the
midst of the worst event that could occur in a mother’s life, she saw past her
circumstances, and had expectation of God reviving her son.
She went to Mount Carmel, where Elisha
was staying, which was about a twenty mile ride, and would have taken several
hours. When Gehazi, his servant saw her
coming, he alerted Elisha, and Elisha sent his servant to meet her and ask her,
“Is
it well with you? Is it
well with your husband? Is it
well with the child?” But
again, she answers three small words of faith, “It is well.”
She rode until she met Elisha, came off
the horse and grabbed him by the feet.
Elisha then knew that her soul was in pain, and that God had not
revealed it to him. We don’t know why
God had not told Elisha of the events.
Elisha often heard of God about things that had not yet come to pass,
and things that had occurred that no one had told him. But perhaps God had not revealed it to him to
test her faith, to see if she would lose confidence in Him on the long ride from
Shuman to Mount Carmel. But she did not.
She spoke to Elisha and said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say,
‘Do not deceive me’?” Then
God reveals to Elisha the situation, for she never told him that the son had
died. She never spoke it, because she
refused to accept it. She saw past her
circumstance and was living in her confidence in God.
Elisha told Gehazi, his servant, to ride
ahead to her house with his staff. He
told him not to stop along the way, not to answer anyone who spoke to him, but
to ride until he saw the child, and lay his staff on the child’s face.
This may have seemed odd, but a staff
was more than just a stick of wood. A
staff was carved by the owner with engravings of God’s faithfulness. When carried by a shepherd it might have a
carving of a bear on it, where the he had killed a bear or a lion where he had
killed a lion. Looking at the staff, the
owner could recollect God’s faithfulness.
A staff, in many ways, was like a journal we would keep of answered
prayers.
When Elisha and the woman met up with Gehazi,
who had already reached the house, the news was not good. He told them “The child has not awakened.”
Several hours would now have passed by. Here, in her own house, after travelling to
get help, her son was still dead. Yet, she
still does not cry out in sorrow, but still waits on God to deliver.
Elisha began to pray to God for life in
the child. He lay on the child to bring
warmth back to his body. He put his
mouth on the child’s mouth to breath into him.
Yet, the child still was dead. He
walked about in the house, and returned to the child, and did the same thing
again.
Then a miracle happened! The child sneezed – seven times – and opened
his eyes! Seven is the number of
completeness in God’s word. God’s test
had been completed, and she had passed.
Her faith never wavered, and her son was returned to her.
When Gehazi called to her to pick up her
son, she didn’t run to the son first as we might do. She bowed to the ground at Elisha’s feet in
gratitude, and then picked up her son.
When we pray we must have unwavering
faith, a faith that lives in expectation of our prayers being answered. We must have conviction in the matter, in
spite of a lack of visible evidence.
James 1:6-7 says that we shouldn’t expect to receive anything from God when
we pray if we doubt, “for he who doubts
is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind… he is a double-minded man, unstable
in all his ways.”
But sometimes the burden can be too much
for our faith to bear alone. That is why
we have each other. The Shunammite
woman did not pray to God herself for the life of her son to return. Perhaps she felt her faith was not strong
enough. Instead, she went for the
prophet, knowing the prophet had already prayed and seen God work miracles.
All things are possible with God, as we
know from His word. But faced with the
evidence of things already past, it can be difficult to place our faith in God
to change our circumstances. Nowhere in
God’s word does it tell us we have to pray for God’s miracles alone. In fact, some of the greatest miracles in His
word occurred when many prayed, such as the forgiveness of Nineveh in Jonah, and
the protection of the Jews in Esther.
Faith is seen in our expectations of our
prayers. If that expectation is
strengthened by having others pray with you, then you should not see it as a personal
weakness to ask others to help you pray.
It is in fact strength to recognize your need for reinforcement. When you need to believe God for something you
doubt, reach out to those who have a staff engraved with answered prayers. Reach out, and find strength in their faith.
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