THE FAITH AND POWER OF A GODLY MOTHER…
I hope you have read her story.
NO DOUBT THIS EXCLUDES a great deal of the American population of woman today. We children of God see it, hear it, know this is fact…
Selah.
We are still living in a fallen world where many ignore God:
Matthew 7:13-14
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
But read on. I am not dealing with these types of mothers today; I am reminding you, all of you (those who love God and those who need to submit) in proving the faith and power of a godly mother. Go with me to 2 Kings, chapter 4. Read of a woman whose trust and love for God allowed her to receive a miracle few mothers believe can yet happen in our time.
Selah.
It came to pass the prophet Elisha came to this couple’s house where this great lady urged him to stay for a meal. What a lovely thing to do! Elisha was so welcomed by this married couple that he would stop to eat with them whenever he came by their home. It was this woman who decided her husband and she needed to fill a wonderful gift for Elisha, the prophet of God; they build a room for him so when he was in the area he knew he had a place to eat, sleep, and be loved…
Selah.
Happy Mother’s Day!
You will be blessed as you believe, receive, and foremostly give the God of all glory, thanksgiving, and worship. Herewith is her story:
2 Kings 4:8-37
One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”
“Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”
“That’s all right,” she said.
She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
“Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”
Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
How would like to have friends like her?! I would!
A godly love wants to deeply appreciate and reciprocate. And that is what the Prophet Elisha did!
NOTE: never forget the ages of Abraham and Sarah: 100 and 90. Refer to Genesis, chapter seventeen.
Take this away: she didn’t say everything in faith:
2 Kings 4:16
About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
But she did believe and receive the rights of a godly mother:
2 Kings 4:167
But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
What next? Her son died and the Shunammite was not going to agree with our final enemy, death:
2 Kings 4:25-26
So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”
“Everything is all right,” she said.
She decided, “Everything is all right,”
She acted out her faith by going to Elisha.
AND… she watched her words!
Selah.
Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Take a lesson from the Shunammite woman and declare to God, yourself, your family, and the devil: “Everything is all right!”
SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS JOY STORY:
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Isaiah 49:25
But thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children.
Isaiah 54:13
All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children.
Jeremiah 31:16-17
Thus says the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.
Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Acts 16:31-34
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
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