puricare chronicles: Famine

Showing posts with label Famine. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

GOD CAN RESTORE EVERYTHING - When premature death hits, when the famine strikes, when the storm comes... none of this can ultimately snatch us out of God’s hand or remove us from His care. In His good time, He can turn the death into life, bring abundance in the midst of famine, and restore everything we have ever lost. There is nothing too hard for Him, no obstacle too large to overcome, nothing impossible. As we continue to put our trust in Him, we will find that God can and will restore to us everything we have lost... and then, He’ll give us more. - The Shunammite along with her husband built a room in their home for the prophet Elijah. And, in order to repay their kindness, Elijah told the childless couple that they would have a son. This obviously delighted the woman, but it was clear that she didn’t want to get her hopes up. What I really loved about her, though, was what she did when her son died of a head injury several years later. The woman was upset that Elijah hadn’t left well enough alone. After so many childless years, the woman had learned to live without children. But to have one unexpectedly given to her... only to have him taken away... seemed cruel to her. Sometime after her son was resurrected, Elisha told the woman to take her family and live somewhere else because God had shown him that a severe famine would hit the land, and it would last for seven years. So, the woman took her family and moved to the land of the Philistines for seven years.

........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

God can restore everything

When premature death hits, when the famine strikes, when the storm comes... none of this can ultimately snatch us out of God’s hand or remove us from His care. In His good time, He can turn the death into life, bring abundance in the midst of famine, and restore everything we have ever lost. There is nothing too hard for Him, no obstacle too large to overcome, nothing impossible. As we continue to put our trust in Him, we will find that God can and will restore to us everything we have lost... and then, He’ll give us more.

Kelley Lorencin

2 Kings 8

Since I didn’t end up commenting on her in chapter 4, I’m glad the Shunammite woman is back again.

You remember her: She was the gal who (along with her husband) built a room in their home for the prophet Elijah.

And, in order to repay their kindness, Elijah told the childless couple that they would have a son.

This obviously delighted the woman, but it was clear that she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

What I really loved about her, though, was what she did when her son died of a head injury several years later.

The woman went immediately to Elijah and said, "Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I tell you, 'Don’t raise my hopes?'" (2 Kings 4:28)

In other words, the woman was upset that Elijah hadn’t left well enough alone.

After so many childless years, the woman had learned to live without children. But to have one unexpectedly given to her... only to have him taken away... seemed cruel to her.

In chapter 8, we learn — as Paul Harvey would have said — the rest of the story.

Sometime after her son was resurrected, Elisha told the woman to take her family and live somewhere else because God had shown him that a severe famine would hit the land, and it would last for seven years.

So, the woman took her family and moved to the land of the Philistines for seven years.

When she came back, she found that her family’s land had fallen into the hands of someone else, so she went to the king to see if she could get it back.

Not only did she get it back, but the king also decreed that she should receive "all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now." (verse 6)

Wow! What an incredible life’s journey this woman had lived with God! He worked a miracle to give her a son — to bring life where it seemed impossible.

Then, He worked another miracle to restore the life after it had been snuffed out.

Next, she experienced God’s intervention and sustaining grace in a time of severe famine. God provided a way of escape for her and her family when things were difficult.

And finally, God was merciful in restoring her property, possessions, and fortune.

Did you know that God can restore everything?

When premature death hits, when the famine strikes, when the storm comes... none of this can ultimately snatch us out of God’s hand or remove us from His care.

In His good time, He can turn the death into life, bring abundance in the midst of famine, and restore everything we have ever lost.

There is nothing too hard for Him, no obstacle too large to overcome, nothing impossible.

As we continue to put our trust in Him, we will find — as did the Shunammite woman — that God can and will restore to us everything we have lost... and then, He’ll give us more.

In the fall of 2007, my father was diagnosed with ALS. One day, shortly after, I asked him if he was scared. He didn't even hesitate; he looked right at me and said, "Kelley, God knows what He's doing."

God knows what He's doing.

My memory of that day ends with those words. But it wasn't long before I came to realize that they had not been spoken by accident. My father wasn't summoning some sort of faith-courage to help him weather the worst storm he'd ever faced. He was simply speaking out of the depths of an intimate friendship with God that had spanned decades.

There is a God. And He knows what He's doing.

The problem is, most of us don't really know Him at all. God is the most-talked-about, least-intimately-known Person of our time. Consequently, because we don't really know Him, we don't really know if we can trust Him. It's my mission to change that for as many people as possible, one person at a time.

https://www.kelleylorencin.com/blog/2019/4/12/god-can-restore-everything

2 Kings 8 English Standard Version

The Shunammite's Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.” 2So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. 4Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+8&version=ESV

You might also like:

Come and See

Steve Green

CLICK HERE . . . to view complete playlist . . .

https://puricarechronicles.blogspot.com/2020/01/blog-post_58.html