Annie
Scriptures: 2 Kings 4: 8-37 1 Peter 5: 6-11
Those of you who know me well, probably know how much inspiration, joy, awe and assurance I gain from the stories in our Bible of the unnamed heroes and heroines whose lives God highlights within His story. One who has impacted my own journey so much is the Shunammite woman. We are not told her name, her husband’s name or her son’s name, but what we are told is a precious treasure beyond imagination.
This woman lived in the days of Elisha the prophet and her story begins when we learn how she urged her husband to build an extra upper room where Elisha could stay when he visited Shunam. The room was equipped with a bed, a chair and a lampstand, a place prepared for the man of God to rest and spend time in prayer and study. She asked nothing from Elisha yet he gave her a promise from God that she would have a son, and it came to pass. The following year she gave birth to her son.
The story then jumps forward several years and we find the son out in the field with his father when he became ill, so ill that his father told one of the servants to take him back to his mother. There, at midday, sitting on his mother’s lap, the boy died. This child of promise died in his mother’s arms and I can only imagine how this must have felt, the shock, the feeling of helplessness, the anguish. Yet, this is not what is recorded, even though she must have felt these emotions, her actions never cease to fill me with awe. She carried her son to the room they had built for Elisha and laid him on the prophet’s bed, I always feel that maybe she considered this to be the closest she could physically get her boy to God Himself. Then, she walked out of the room and shut the door. How significant is that action? This is very significant, she had taken her son to God and left him with God, closing the door and walking away. The absolute assurance she had that her precious boy was safe with God, is such a huge example to us all. When we lay whatever our problem is at God’s feet, we need that same assurance so that we can leave it there, walk away and shut the door.
Then she goes out to the field where she asked her husband to give her a servant with a donkey so that she could go and see the man of God, at first he questioned why she needed to go, and her reply was “All is well, all will be well”. I am totally certain that those words could only have come from a heart that was broken, but a heart that knew God’s promises never fail. God had promised her a son, He had fulfilled that promise and she knew that her son was safe with God right at that moment. Her assurance of the power and love of God to literally make all things well is so beautiful. There is no arrogance in her actions, no recrimination, no intrusion of any form of self aggrandisement, she simply believed in God’s promise.
When she arrived at Elisha’s home, she once again used the words “all is well”. Again, despite knowing that her son lay dead at home, she declared that all was well, all would be well. Her emotions did overcome her, she did break down and weep, but still her assurance that all would be well outshone the emotions that wracked her. The outcome was that her son did live, Elisha travelled back to her home and God healed her son when Elisha followed the seemingly odd instruction he was given by God. All was indeed well.
Having the absolute assurance that God always keeps His promises, whether it takes 1 minute or 10 years, is a sure and certain fact. Living in the knowledge that God will never let us down, even if the path to the outcome is different from what we would do, or what we expect God to do, He is ever faithful. Like the Shunammite woman, we can say with confidence “All is well, all will be well”.
Prayer: God, You have said that mountains are moved, not by might or power, but by Your Spirit. Whatever the mountain we face, we can with confidence and total assurance say that it will be moved in Your time, in Your way and by Your Holy Spirit. Thank You God, in Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.
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