The Fourth Wall - Day 17

2 Kings

2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!”

But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”

The officer working with the king couldn’t imagine that things could be so bad today and so good tomorrow. He couldn’t fathom how this turnaround could occur; perhaps that is a measure of his faith. He was, after all, speaking with a prophet of God. But sometimes it is difficult to believe that God will really come through, particularly when you are in a crisis.

We go through crisis all the time. We almost always head to one, in the midst of one, or coming out of one. We often can’t see how good God can be through all of these struggles because it is difficult to get perspective in those times. Trying times create a myopathy that can be deadly when it comes to seeing how God is working. Interestingly, these are often the moments when we are crying out to God more and more, hoping for a result.

Because we are sometimes blinded to the way that God works, we find ourselves trusting other things more than we trust God, much like the assistant to the kind in this story. Elisah essentially told the man that he would not be able to partake of any of the bounty due to his lack of faith.

Have you ever lacked faith in God and been surprised that God showed up? Conversely, have you ever believed that God would change things, and it felt like God did not make any appearances at all? These things can be incredibly confusing to us as we are trying to figure out how God is working in our lives.

Perhaps it is best if we are not prescriptive with God, but we try to be more descriptive of how God has been faithful in the past. Rather than trying to see where you would imagine God working right now, look back to the past to see how God has been faithful, and perhaps that will give us insight to where God continues to work in our lives.

1. Have you ever been disappointed by God? How did that make you feel? 
2. Did God ever surprise you and show up when you didn’t expect it? 
3. Have you ever driven yourself crazy trying to figure out how God works? Should we even do that? 
4. How has God been faithful in the past in your life?