Women
Have you ever being in a storm that just hit you suddenly without warning. It’s one thing to anticipate a storm and get yourself together but it’s a completely different situation when you’re going about your business on a very regular, then suddenly the storm strikes without warning.
It’s great to read about the storm, listen to teachings about the storm, teach others about the storm, encourage another person experiencing the storm but when the storm suddenly hits you holding on and surviving is the true challenge. I recently faced a storm that brought me down in despair and I began to question my faith in God. But then I remembered a woman who faced an even bigger storm but her anchor was so deep her ship was unshakeable. I wish I knew her name but I don’t. She’s called the shunamite woman, a reflection of her simplicity. She was an everyday woman but a woman of outstanding faith.
On a regular day she was confronted with a storm, a strange illness was upon her little boy, and he sat on her laps and died right in front of her. The lad was healthy and happy when he left the house in the morning to join the reapers in the fields but by noon the storm of death hit the family. Sometimes the storm comes when you’re reaping the harvest of God’s goodness, and thus you’re left in a state of perplexity.
Join me on a journey through time as we look through the storm at the shunamaite woman. See her faith and courage in 2nd kings 4. I pondered on how she handled the situation and I began to ask myself:
Where does such courage come from?
Where does such strength come from?
How could a woman lose her only son and say ‘It is well’?
Such inner strength and courage can only be found in a heart-anchored deep in God’s word.
When the storm rages, the heart anchored deep in faith in God’s remains unshakeable during the storms of life. Circumstances and situations we face do not determine our destiny. It’s the faith in our hearts, the word we believe in our heart and the tenacity with which we hold unto the word. That was the key in this woman’s life. She held on in tenacity although she was stunned by the storm.
There are three things she could have done in the face of the storm but she refused to do these three things.
1)She could have let her response to the storm be limited by tradition and culture:
In 2nd kings 4:22 she calls to her husband and asks for young men and donkeys to ride to the prophet. The man of the house said to her “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon or the Sabbath”
Tradition can be an evil beast that nullifies the grace of God on a person’s life. Doing things the way its always being done or the way society demand will not bring us the anticipated breakthrough. Doing it God’s way will bring the breakthrough and enable us to survive he storm.
2)She refused to be negative
Not a record exists which indicates negativity on the part of this woman. Twice she responds to questions with three very powerful words “it is well”
Negativity, worry and complaining does not calm the storm; they only worsen the storm.
She summoned an inner strength (one her husband did not seem to have) and faced the storm with calm and confidence.
3)She refused to let go:
She refused to let go of her hope for a miracle. She told the man of God; the prophet Elisha in verse 30 “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.”
She knew what she needed and nothing was going to stop her from getting her breakthrough. She was going to hold on until life came back into the body of her little boy.
It’s hard to see your way when there’ a storm. Vision is blurred; dreams seem faded but if we’re going to survive we must do it the shunamite way: don’t let go.
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