Walking in wisdom (ii)

Today we consider more lessons on wisdom from the Holy Scriptures, first examining the Lord Jesus’ words to His disciples at a time of their heightened distress. This was just before the Lord’s crucifixion, they had given up their lives for Jesus and He was now outrightly telling them that He was soon leaving them behind. Jesus here gives us a template for victory, saying to the twelve, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1) – the first key thing to note is that it is absolutely YOUR responsibility to ensure that your heart is not troubled, because Jesus would have not placed this expectation on His disciples had He known that they had no capacity or tools to see it through. As a follower of Jesus, it is better to accept the reality of the fact that the life you have chosen comes with inherent and unavoidable challenges; you will face adversity, there is an evil day apportioned for all men and the way you respond is your choice. Defeat is a choice, and faith is also a choice – and you are the one who determines the outcome of any hiccup you face. Keeping your heart from trouble is the ability to harness your emotions, not allowing them to run amok in every direction because once the doors to negative thoughts are open, riling them back in will be much harder to accomplish. The Lord gave them a tool to ensure they keep their heart under management, He said to them, “… in My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (v.2) – because the Lord knew that sometimes, comforts of this world are too circumstantial and temporal to rely on, so He brings their focus to eternity, a joy that will never pass away! There is no pain on this side of life that can even begin to compare to the joy of being with the Lord. It is written, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelations 21:4) – this is what we know, and because we know what awaits us, we can respond better to adversities today! 

Another example of a character who knew how to respond to trials that we have from the scriptures is the Shunammite woman found in the second book of Kings. We read that Elisha constantly made use of the road passing through her home in his journeys, and the woman had the sense to discern that Elisha was a man of God, and as a result, she would always constrain him to take dwelling at her place of residence (2 Kings 4: 8-7). This eventually led to the woman convincing her husband that they ought to build a cottage on top of their house that would serve as Elisha’s chambers; a prophetic act of service that displayed the woman’s appreciation for the things of God and the setting of a godly covering over her home and affairs. This was active faith, full of exertion and deliberate decisions. Although she had asked nothing of him, Elisha blessed her to conceive a son in her old age, and years later, we see the boy’s health being compromised, eventually leading to him dying in his mother’s arms. The first thing notable that we see after the death is the Shunammite woman’s response – we read, “… she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out (v.21) – she took the boy’s body right where she got him (from God) and she shut out all doors to unwelcome and unproductive negativity. She was resolute in keeping her heart where it should be, even when questioned by her husband on her sudden trip to see the prophet Elisha, she simply responded, “… it is well’ (v.23). Instead of sitting about complaining and deliberating the unfortunate events that had unfolded, she hurried to the man of God (v.24). This shows her wisdom, she knew time was of the essence and that her faith elasticity would soon reach its limit and her heart would give in. Your heart always knows, it will never deceive you – if you are honest, you can know exactly where you are in faith and from that sober perspective, you can derive strategies for victory that will consider all factors and ensure your success. We see the same from Elisha when she arrived, the man of God expressed a sense of urgency as well (v.25 -26), and when asking her about what it was that was vexing her so deeply, she again responded, ‘… it is well’ (v.26).  She was determined to keep her confession.

After Elisha had sent off his servant to travel back to where the boy was, we read that she insisted on not leaving the man of God (v.30), and Elisha then travelled back with her with his servant going ahead of them. The servant, Gehazi, got there before them, and laid Elisha’s staff on the boy’s body to no response. He then went out to meet the man of God and the mother, telling them, “The child has not awakened” (v.31). We then read, “He (Elisha) went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm” (33-34). We see that the man of God also shut out all distractions and focused on God, and while the child did not immediately wake up, we read that his body became warm – a sign that showed that Elisha’s faith had begun to yield fruit. But today, many of God’s children have no regard for seed-time-harvest in issues of faith, we expect instant results and give up immediately after we do not perceive what we desire. The boy went on to sneeze seven times before opening his eyes, and we too ought to be mindful of the small signs of our faith working, which will further give fuel for the lasting of our elasticity to see us through to the very end. Church, your response has a great influence on your eventual outcome! Let us be more mindful!

Prayer

Father, we thank You for constantly teaching us the way to go, being patient in our learning and long-suffering in our mistakes. Your mercy has covered us where we ought to have gone under, your grace has shown us a better way, and Your Spirit continues to empower us forward. We thank You for victory, we thank You for rigging the odds in our favour! In the name of Jesus. Amen!