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From: The Message/Remix: Solo, An Uncommon Devotional Day 45

False Hopes?

Read
Read 2 Kings 4:8-37.  Here is a link to that reading in an online bible:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+4%3A8-37&version=NRSV

Think
Have you ever felt the bitter sting of shattered hopes and desires? The barren woman from Shunem knows the sting intimately – her grief here seems to confirm the doubt she experienced earlier whenthe holy man, Elisha, prophesied that she would have a son.  At the time of the prophecy, not wanting to get her hopes up, she wouldn’t even let on that she desired a son.  Now she seems to wish she’d never hoped at all.

Notice Elisha’s response to the woman in her fear, grief, and regret.  Take several minutes to think about this.  How might Elisha’s response reflect God’s response to her?  What might God have been feeling as he watched her struggle with her son’s death?

Pray
Explore your own heart to see if there are any deep desires there that you are afraid to trust God with.  Can you tell him why you hold back?  Ask him to show you his response to your desires and to help you trust him more, just as the Shunammite woman trusted Elisha enough to expose her anguish to him.

Live
Henri Nouwen wrote, “At every moment you have to decide to trust the voice that says, ‘I love you.  I knit you together in your mother’s womb’ (Ps. 139:13).  Ponder this quote.  What might your life look like if you were to take God at his word, believing that he knows all about you and cares for you as tenderly as Elisha cared for the Shunammite?  How might you pray differently?  Live differently?

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