Tag: spirituality

God’s perfect timing

The story here is an interesting on a couple of levels.

First, the issue of Gehazi. The last we saw of him, he had been struck with leprosy for his deception of Naaman in chapter 5.

Now he’s seen here talking to King Joram about Elisha.

There are several possibilities.

One is that the story is not in chronological order, so that this incident happened before Gehazi’s leprosy.

Another possibility is that God relented and healed him.

One interesting rabbinic theory is that the four lepers in chapter 7 were Gehazi and his sons, and that because of their actions, God healed them.

There are other possibilities as well, but I would say these are the two most likely.

The second thing that’s interesting about this story is God’s timing.

Here is this Shunnamite woman, who had been warned by Elisha to leave the country because of the famine to come.

When she comes back, apparently her husband had died in Philistia, and she and her son had come to the king to beg for their house and land back.

At the exact moment they walk in, there is Gehazi talking to the king about how Elisha had raised this woman’s son from the dead.

Imagine the shock on Gehazi’s face when he recognized her.

“This is the woman, my lord the king! And this is her son whom Elisha restored to life!” (2 Kings 8:5)

The king questioned her about the incident and apparently was so impressed, that he immediately took care of this woman’s case, restoring her land and everything that belonged to her.

God’s timing is always impeccable.

I can think of so many times in my life, when things fell into place at just the right time.

When I think, for example, of how God brought my wife and I together, it particularly amazes me. (But that’s a story for another time).

But I have to admit, in the midst of trial, it can be difficult to wait. Sometimes, it’s tempting to try to move ahead of God’s timing, and to force things to happen.

I was talking with a guy who really wants to get married, but right now things don’t seem to be moving in that area.

Many single Christians in Japan get tired of waiting and force the issue, getting married to a non-Christian.

Only they find that when they do so, they’ve just replaced one problem with another, bigger problem.

Let us always remember that God’s timing is perfect.

As David wrote,

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:13-14)

Tags Bible Original, Bible verse, faith, spirituality

2 Kings

Nothing too small

What amazes me about God is that he is concerned even with the minor details of our lives. There is nothing that he considers too small to bring up to his attention.

In this story, some of the prophets were building a place for all of them to live and were cutting down some trees.

But as one of them was doing so, the axhead flew off the handle and landed in the water.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t his own axe. It belonged to another.

But when Elisha heard about the problem, he didn’t brush it off. He didn’t say, “I don’t deal with trivial things such as this.”

Instead, he cared enough to help recover the axe.

I wonder if we truly understand the loving care that God has for us. That he cares not only about the big things in our lives, but the small.

How often do we hold back in our prayers, not asking for things, because we believe it’s not worth God’s attention?

But to God, we are worth his attention. And if we are concerned, then so is he.

So when we face worries or concerns in our lives, let us be quick to bring them up to our heavenly Father.

Know that he will not reject our requests because they are beneath him or unworthy of his time or attention.

He who notices every sparrow that falls to the ground, notices every detail of your life as well, down to the number of hairs on your head.

Let us rest and take comfort in the love that he has for us.

Tags Bible Original, Bible verse, spirituality

1 Kings

The one who is truly God

And so we come to one of the great confrontations in the Bible, Elijah and the prophets of Baal (and Asherah — funny how that often got lost every time I heard the story as a child).

Elijah, starts, however, not by confronting the prophets, but the people of Israel.

Apparently, they had continued the practices started under Jeroboam, not totally abandoning the worship of Yahweh, but mixing it in with the worship of other “gods.”

And so Elijah challenges them saying,

How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him. (1 Kings 18:21)

I kind of wonder if the people had started to doubt God’s existence.

Perhaps the reason that they worshiped both Yahweh and Baal (and Asherah) is because they wondered if either really existed.

At any rate, when Elijah challenged them, they said…nothing.

Then the contest began. The prophets of Baal started to dance around, praying, cutting themselves, desperately trying to get their god’s attention.

Elijah started mocking them, asking them if perhaps Baal was asleep or using the bathroom. And so they got even more frantic in their prayers.

But as the Bible says,

There was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (29)

Finally, Elijah had enough. He rebuilt the altar of God, put on the bull, had the people even pour buckets of water over the sacrifice, and then he prayed.

The moment he finished praying, fire came down from heaven and completely consumed the sacrifice.

As a result, the people cried out,

The Lord–he is God! The Lord–he is God! (39)

And so he is. He is not a god formed out of wood or stone. He is not the figment of our imagination. He is a God who sees, who hears, and who acts.

If there was any doubt in Ahab’s mind left, God dispelled it by sending rain in torrents as Ahab was going home. It was the first time in three years that rain had fallen.

And yet, he refused to follow God even then. Instead, he continued to live on in his wicked ways.

How about you? There is only one God. But do you follow him? Or are you like the people of Israel, doubting his existence? Are you like Ahab, who despite all the evidence refused to follow after him?

Let us not live in doubt. Let us not live in rebellion. Rather let us live in faith, trusting and following hard after God.