Sometimes we look around but don't see what's going On.
2 Kings 6:8- 17
I God knows what we need before we need it. vs 14
and they came by night,
Notice what the Bible doesn't say.
That Elisha and his servant saw the trouble they were in and
prayed for help.
That Elisha called fire down from Heaven or called on God to
wipe out his enemies
God knew what they needed before they did.
1 John 3:20 tells us that God knoweth all things.
Why is it that when we get in trouble we cry out to God like he didn't
see it coming?
You can't surprise God. God isn't sitting behind a desk going over
one prayer request after another finding out things about the
lives of his children he didn't know.
Ps 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou
hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be
reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
Ps 139:17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great
is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in
number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
II. God will send more than it takes to take care of it. vs 17
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Is 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the
camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five
thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold,
they were all dead corpses.
That means that one angel wiped out 185,000 people in one night, by
his self, and to protect His prophet Elisha he sends enough angels
to cover the mountain side.
God wasn't playing. his angels were going to get the job done.
David said in his 23rd psalm Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
If I had to rely on nothing but myself no matter what kind of situation I
was end, I would be a nervous wreck. But I know I am never alone.
God is always with me. He is always doing what needs to be done for me
III. God Can Fix it even if we don't believe it vs 15 & 16
In this passage Elisha had faith but his servant didn't. Guess what!
Elisha's servant was saved from destruction too.
It really bothers me when I hear about some quake faith healer on
television that tells a person with a terminal decease that the
reason they weren't healed is because they didn't have enough
faith.
I know the Bible says that without Faith it's impossible to please God,
but it doesn't say that when our faith is weak God kicks us to the
curb.
There are at least five references in the Bible where Jesus says, Thy faith
hath made thee whole, and a miracle took place but there are
examples where Jesus Healed people and they never even saw
him. Faith isn't always a requirement.
Elisha and his servant went to bed one night and when they woke up
they were already surrounded. But God had taken care of their
problem before they knew they had one.
It wasn't done according to their faith, but according to God's Power.
The Bible tells us in Jer 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast
made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched
out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Church we need to remember we serve the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords.
There is no god like our GOD.
The Bible says in Phil 4: 13 I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me.
As great and powerful as that verse is sometimes we simply need to
remember that sometimes we don't have to do a thing because God
has already taken care of it.
He has made a way where there didn't seem to be a way.
He has seen the future and directed our path
He has provided. He has protected. He has Blessed more than we have
even dreamed.
When I walk those streets of Gold. When I see all my family and friends
that have went on before. when I get to stand before my God. before
my Lord and Savior and I take a couple of hundred years thanking
Him for all that I know he has done in my life, then I am going to ask
Him to tell me about all the things He did for me that I never knew
about. And then I'm going to Thank Him all over again.
God will take care of you.
During the 1st part of the 20th century, J. C. Penney presided over a very powerful empire of over 1,700 stores. At the time he had the country’s largest chain of department stores, each one bearing his name.
Although his enterprise made him incredibly wealthy, J.C. Penney’s life was not devoid of setbacks and troubles. In fact, beginning in 1929, events took place that nearly cost Penney his life.
When the Great Depression struck the country, it came at a time of great financial vulnerability for Penney. In the good times, before the Depression, Penney had overextended himself and had borrowed heavily to finance many of his ventures. But when the Depression hit banks began to request repayment of his loans sooner than anticipated. Suddenly cash flow was tight, and Penney was finding it difficult to meet payment schedules. Constant and unrelenting worry began to take a toll. "I was so harassed with worries that I couldn’t sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment," he said.
Concerned about his deteriorating health, Penney checked himself into the Kellogg sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan, (kind of the Mayo Clinic of its era). There, Dr. Elmer Eggleston, a staff physician, examined Penney, declaring that he was extremely ill.
Penney later recalled "A rigid treatment was prescribed, but nothing helped," He was constantly tormented by periods of hopelessness and despair. His very will to live was rapidly eroding.
"I got weaker day by day. I was broken, nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for, I felt that I hadn’t a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me."
Alarmed by his rapidly deteriorating condition, Dr. Eggleston gave Penney a sedative. However, the effect quickly wore off, and Penney awakened with the conviction that he was living the last night of his life. "Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I did not expect to live to see the dawn."
Penney awakened the next morning, surprised to find himself alive. Making his way down the hallway of the hospital, he could hear singing coming from the little chapel where devotional exercises were held each morning. The words of the hymn he heard being sung spoke deeply to him.
Going into the chapel, he listened to the singing, the reading of the Scripture lesson, and the prayer.
"Suddenly something happened," he said. "I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into a warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to Paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before."
In a life-transforming instant Penney knew that God, with His love, was there to help. "From that day to this, my life has been free from worry," he declared. "The most dramatic and glorious 20 minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning."
The words from the hymn that spoke to J. C. Penney were these
Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you.
God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you, God will take care of you.
