Could this happen?

Dear friends,

As I was reading in 2 Kings 7 last night, I came across a powerful passage which I would like to share with you. The context of the passage is a severe famine in the city, which caused food prices to rise so dramatically that some mothers even began to eat their own children. Convinced that the famine was from the Lord, the king of Israel became so frustrated and angry that he went with one of his officers to kill the Lord's prophet, Elisha. Below is Elisha's response to the king and to the king's officer.

1 Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"
"You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"

The first impact of this passage comes from the reminder of God's power to completely transform even the most desperate situation overnight. We become blind to the power of God because we rest in the sin of unbelief. To protect ourselves emotionally, we make excuses for why God is not transforming our situation - but the deeper reality is that we are beginning to doubt his power.

The sin of unbelief is a bitter root which can destabilize and cause hopelessness in even the most committed Christian. It is better to protect ourselves from the sin of unbelief than to have a mindset that "must know" why God is not doing a certain work in our lives in the timing that we find acceptable.

The second impact of this passage comes from the realization that the officer of the king represents me! When I am in a desperate situation, I sometimes say or think, "Could this happen? Could God really change this desperate situation I'm in?"

Elisha's response to the officer is shocking: "You will see it (God's provision) with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!" Literally, the next day, the officer of the king saw the provision of God yet was trampled to death by people running to get it! This is shocking and frightening because we are also in danger of letting our circumstances lead us into unbelief and an inability to receive the Lord's provision when it comes.

We can walk in step with the Spirit of God by being a people who continually preach to ourselves against our hardness of heart. Pray with me now: "O Lord, my heart is so hard. I have made so many excuses to myself about why you have delayed the provision that I am waiting for. In my heart of hearts, I have doubted your power.

Forgive my unbelief Lord Jesus. Forgive my unbelief. I yield to you and give up my need to know how you are at work and when you will answer me - only do not let me miss out on tasting of your provision when it comes. I want to persevere with you to the end, believing that at any moment you can radically transform my situation. O Lord, even if you choose to keep my situation as it is - for purposes greater than I can see - cause my heart to soften and to rejoice in your great power! Let my heart sing your praises just as king David did in the depths of his despair. O Lord, How Great Thou Art! How Great Thou Art."

Let your soul sing in the Lord Jesus,

Jonathan

A Better Hope

Dear friends,

I have always loved to read. When I read, I become so engrossed that I literally “tune out” the world around me. Even as a young student in school, I would become so engrossed in my reading that I would neither see nor hear the entire class line up for lunchtime. Their favorite strategy was to repeatedly shout, “Earth to Jonathan, Earth to Jonathan,” until I tuned back into my surroundings.

Many of us do the same thing in our everyday lives. We become so engrossed in “our story” that we cannot see or hear anything else. We rise and fall in tune with our own characters and events – until our hope in life is completely dependent on the outcome of our story.

But this kind of hope always disappoints us in the end. People die, jobs are lost, relationships are destroyed, children grow up and start their own families, and friends move away. Even the best stories come to an end.

There’s a much bigger story, however, that God wants us to pay attention to – and it’s unfolding all around us. In this story, the hero and the enemy are clear, and there is only one hope which burns bright – and you and I are the bearers of that bright light to a dark and hopeless world.

In this greater story of creation, fall, redemption, judgment and glory, the only hope which does not disappoint is the hope of eternal salvation through faith in the saving work of Jesus the Christ. To hold this hope and this hope alone as the foundation of all of our stories is to experience a deep, abiding and unshakable joy and confidence in the One who loves us.

But such hope does not come cheaply. It comes first through the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross, and it comes secondly through our suffering – used by God to open our eyes and ears to the better hope he offers through Jesus Christ. Paul describes this hope in Romans 5:4-5:

4And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. 5Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 Amplified Bible)

Keep in mind that Paul is writing to believers. Sometimes we confuse the outcome of our hope – which is certain – with the holding of hope – which is developed through suffering, perseverance and character formation. There is often no other way than suffering to shake us loose from “our story” and into "God's story."

Once we understand the role of suffering in our lives – that God is calling us into a better hope – in which we will experience the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit – we will be able to regard our suffering with the mindset Paul describes in verse 3:

3Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

With this new mindset, we can re-enter our story with a looser grip on the outcome and a better hope in the One who has already written the final chapter.

Let’s pray together:

“Lord Jesus, thank you for the suffering that you endured for me – for all of us – on the cross. Thank you for giving your Holy Spirit as the deposit and guarantor of our hope in you for eternal salvation.

Lord, we need your help. I need your help. My hope is too often shaken because I keep basing it in my story – so I have become disappointed, hurt, and sometimes bitter.

Please forgive me for getting lost in my story. O Lord, use this present suffering in my life – use whatever you need to use – to open my eyes and ears to the joyful and confident hope that is found in you alone. Amen.”

With a better hope,

Jonathan