COURAGE TO HOPE

• DAY 239
• FEAR FILE: THE SHUNAMMITE WOMAN
• SCRIPTURES: 2 KINGS 4:11-17

And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.” So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!” But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.

It can be very tough to hold out hope for something that you have tried over and over again and it has failed over and over again. The natural response of most human beings to such dashed hope is to move on with their lives. However, when most of us do move on, it’s with hurt and probably bitterness in our hearts. We feel that God has disappointed us because we prayed and asked Him for the same thing and He didn’t answer. This often affects our relationship with Him, we give up on God. Another thing we do is move on and close that chapter completely. We conclude that this is not for us and we don’t ever want to hear it again. We throw in the towel, but we still maintain our faith and our communication with God. It is the thing we gave up on not God. We concluded it was not in God’s plan for us.

Don’t Lie

The Shunammite woman was the kind that closed the chapter. She was influential, powerful, and wealthy; she had everything going for her, except a child. But she hadn’t given up on God. That’s why when she saw Prophet Elisha, she wanted to help. So she invited him to her house. and eventually made a room for him. Being blessed so much by this woman, this Prophet wanted to be a blessing so he asked her, “What do you want?” “Nothing,” She replied. It did not occur to her to ask for a child. She didn’t think that her life lacked anything. We can mistake this response for contentment but this was lost hope and her response to Elisha’s prophecy proved that.

“No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.” 2 Kings 4:16b NLT

You make these kinds of remarks when you are protecting your heart from disappointment because your heart cannot take it anymore. This woman probably hoped and prayed for a son until she probably passed the age. With the money she had, she must have tried fertility options to no avail. Now she was too afraid to believe and too disappointed to hope. But because we concluded on something, does not mean that God had concluded on that thing. He could be trying to bring that to us but we have closed our minds and lost our hope.

Content Not Hopeless

Beloved, God wants us to be content, not hopeless. Contentment means that we aren’t living our lives miserable and feeling stuck but joyful and holding out hope. In contentment, you don’t feel like life is over because you lack one thing but when an opportunity comes you don’t sound like the Shunammite woman either. Contentment says, “Okay God, I trust you, if you give me this, I will be grateful but If you don’t bring it for me, I’m okay too.” Hopelessness say, “I’m done believing for this.” People of courage never shut a door in their lives that God has not shut. They keep believing that God will bring His promise to pass.

God’s promise is that none shall be barren in the land and this woman was a beneficiary of that promise. God was here to bring that promise to her, and all she needed to do was to receive.

If your hope is waning in any area of your life don’t let it go. The Bible says Abraham hoped when hope was impossible. To maintain hope you have to practice speaking to God about how you feel, staying in word and prayer, reminding yourself of His promises, and leaning on your faith community in those seasons when you need support. Don’t close the door on something you are believing God for because He will bring it in the fullness of time.

Shalom.