When Your Life Is Impossible
What do you do when all your alternatives look bleak? Sometimes it looks like there simply are no good options – to stay as you are won’t work, to choose option A will not help, and to choose option B might be the worst choice of all. What do you do then?
Four Samaritan men with leprosy found themselves in just such a situation (2 Kings 7). They lived on the outskirts of a city of Samaria. Drought and famine had fallen on the land, and they were starting to starve. They knew they wouldn’t find help if they went into the city – the famine was devastating the people in the city, too. If they went to an (enemy) Aramean camp nearby, they might find resources, but they would either be enslaved or killed. There was no apparent good option.
The men chose to risk it all and go to the Aramean camp for mercy and help. When they arrived, however, they found that God had miraculously preceded them. God had caused fear to fall on the enemy camp, leading the people to flee their camp so quickly that they left their resources and riches behind. The four lepers ate and had their fill, and began storing some of their newfound riches for a later date. After a while they realized that they needed to share the good news of their free provisions with others from their hometown. They ended up being heroes and deliverers.
The four men didn’t realize it, but their lives were a part of a much bigger picture. God was working deliverance for Samaria and he was planning to miraculously use these four lepers, but they had no idea. They were scratching out a way to survive, yet God was planning to use them to find abundant resources that would more than take care of the entire city. He had planned it and prophesied it through Elisha, but no one knew how it would or even could happen.
When you find yourself in tight situations, you are tempted to think in small and hopeless ways. It is easy to start thinking and planning with a scarcity mentality, as if the only resources available are those you can see. A better approach is to raise your eyes to God. Consider His larger picture, and what He might want to do. Don’t allow your prayers to be limited to your own provision, instead link them to God’s Kingdom will for your sphere of influence – and your city, region and nation. God is always at work, and He is always concerned about the big picture as well as the small picture.
Your hardships are not happenstance occurrences; they are often tools used by God for His glory and for the benefit of others. This is how His Kingdom often works; and this is what God is like. While you are working with the timings of your life, God is also working with the timings of people and circumstances around you.
So, when you face apparently impossible situations, pray large and Kingdom focused prayers. Put your faith in God to direct and deliver you. Do the best you can to choose wisely. And, when the time comes … act boldly and in faith! Keep your eyes open to all that God does.
In Faith with you,
Pastor Tom
tgriffith@rolcboston.org
