By: Steve Leland
Sometimes, as I attempt to walk the path that Yah has planned for me, I don’t get the results that I feel Yah would want from my prayers. I pray for outcomes that I feel He would desire and sometimes the answers happen as hoped for. Other times the response seems weak or short-lived. Now, of course we all know that most of the time the problem is that we are looking for an answer to what we perceive as a finite situation, and He is looking at a much bigger picture and cannot give us the answer that we seek because of how it affects other parts of the overall pieces of the puzzle. But there are still those times when it feels like something was left undone.
So I was pondering all of this and I was reminded of the story of King Joash when he visited the prophet Elisha before Elisha died. Evidently, he was looking for victory over the Syrians, and Elisha told him that he would have that victory. Then Elisha told him to take a bundle of arrows and beat the ground with them. Joash did what the prophet asked, but only hit the ground three times. Elisha was very frustrated over this and told him that because he had only struck the ground three times, that he would only have victory over the Syrians three times, but they wouldn’t be completely defeated. If he would have been a bit more demonstrative and hit the ground five or six times, he would have experienced complete victory. So how often have I, after striking the ground, as it were, three times, assumed that I had done my due diligence and the victory should be complete?
Take healing, for instance. I mostly have the tendency to view it as an either/or situation. Either you are healed, or you are not. Either Yah answers a prayer for healing, or He doesn’t. If He doesn’t, then I assumed that healing wasn’t His will. I am beginning to understand that that is too limited of a view. Sometimes, I believe, it takes more occurrences of laying that request on the altar and waiting for His perfect timing. Giving up and assuming that He doesn’t want it to happen is not our best option. There are those times, though, that He speaks to our heart and tells us to let it go. These must of course be heeded.
Job gave us an interesting example in how he acted towards his children. He gave daily offerings for them in case they sinned. Not because they were sinning, but just in case. The hard thing here is that we don’t see them getting the protection that we would expect. Yah decided that, for whatever reason, they would all be removed from the earth at once. Was it for Job’s sake, or was it for ours? If it was for our greater understanding, and we fail to get it, much was endured in vain.
It’s not about us, folks. It’s about the Kingdom. Its about how our lives enhance the Kingdom.
By: Steve Leland
April 19, 2024
