Today, we’re going to study a beautiful story turned tragic, then made miraculous. God has specifically asked me to share this story with you, his girls today. We will look at this story in 3 separate parts.
First, the beautiful part. 2 Kings 4: 8-17
One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. (Remember from yesterday’s devotional, Elisha is a prophet of God with a very special connection to deliver God’s messages and do God’s miraculous works.) A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.
She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her.” When she appeared, Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘We appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?”
“No,” she replied, “my family takes good care of me.”
Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?”
Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.”
“Call her back again,” Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, “Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arm!”
“No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.”
But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
My friends, you simply cannot out-give God. He sees the good you do, and he responds. God responds with blessings so overwhelming good that we couldn’t even dare ask for them.
But, know this … God sees the heart of your “good works”.
Are you doing good things just to be seen? Are you hoping good things will come to you as a result? Jesus warns us about this in Matthew 6:1, “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.” Verse 4, “Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
This has been a a very hard lesson for me personally. If I did something good, I wanted everyone to know about it. I was intoxicated with the praise. I desperately wanted to be liked because of my good deeds. Then God asked me to shut down my public life, draw close to him, and be completely obedient in secret. I cannot tell you how good this has been for me. Maybe God is calling you to the same secretly good life of obedience where absolutely no one else will know of the goodness you do. This truly opens a door for God’s blessings on a whole other level!
This woman gave a room to Elisha not to be seen or praised, but out of pure goodness and obedience. As a result, God saw her private gifts and he rewarded her.
His reward to her was a blessing she didn’t even dare ask for. It was a gift so big she hadn’t even hoped for it. The thing her heart most wanted, but she hadn’t allowed herself to dream of … a son. A son when it was too late. A son when it was totally unlikely. And God did it for her.
She couldn’t out-give God, and neither can you. What if on the other side of your obedience and humble acts of kindness and goodness unseen by everyone else, God has a gift so perfect for you that you don&#...