Have you ever had your hopes raised, only to find them broken to pieces?  We have been following the story of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4.  Elisha had said she would have a son, but now her son was dead.

 

She had journeyed to Mount Carmel by donkey.  On seeing Elisha she fell at his feet and cried out,  “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?  Didn’t I tell you don’t raise my hopes?”  Those hopes now lay in ruins.  Yet she held on in faith.  

 

Elisha sent his servant Gehazi to lay his staff on the boy.  When he did nothing happened!  Why not? 

Does it seem as if the promises God has given you have died?  The woman, whose story we have been following in 2 Kings 4, must have felt like that.  God had promised her a son, and now that son lay lifeless in the room she had built for the prophet Elisha. She told no-one, not even her husband, as she rode from the village of Shunem to Mount Carmel on her donkey. 

 

Elisha saw her coming and sent his servant to meet her.  “Are you all right?  Is your husband all right?  Is your son all right?” The woman simply replied, “Everything is all right.”  Incredible!  It wasn’t!

At times it seems as if God works in our lives without us having to do anything!  He takes pleasure in granting us the desires of our heart.  That is what happened to the Shunammite woman.  Elisha had said she would have a child, and just as was promised she gave birth to a son.

 

However there are times when our faith is stretched, when we need to hold on to those promises.  The woman’s son was now a young boy and had gone to the fields with his father.  Suddenly he cried out, “My head!  My head!”  Within hours he lay lifeless in his mother’s arms.