Make Room For God

- June 30, 2020

2 Kings 4

The following paragraph is a paraphrase of the events that took place in 2 Kings 4.

Elisha the prophet passed Shunem a few times. And he always lodged with the Shunemite woman and her family. She was glad to him over all the time. So she prepared and built a room for him, with a bed, lamp, table and chair. It was her way of blessing him and honouring him as the man of God. Elisha asked what he could do for her because of her generosity to which his servant Gehazi responded by saying that she was childless. Through the Spirit of God he told her that in a year's time she would bear a son.

When he was older, he was out in the fields with his dad. His head hurt and the servant carried him to his mother. He sat on her lap until he passed at noon. His mother saddled up her donkey and rushed of to see Elisha. Upon their return, Elisha had the boy laid on his bed as he put his body on the boy's and face to face with the boy, he began to pray. The boy's body began to warm. Elisha paced the room back and forth. Then he laid on the boy again prayed and the boy sneezed seven times before opening his eyes. His mother then took him downstairs and saw to his needs. And that's my paraphrase of the incident that took place in Shunem in the life of Elisha.

I want to encourage you today to make room for God to work in your life. The woman, by virtue of building a room and furnishing it was in fact preparing herself for God's power to be displayed in her life and the life of her family. For her, it was just building a spare room for the prophet Elisha to rest. For God it was an opportunity to show off his power at a later stage.

The blessing did come. God gave her what she desired. But what God wanted was to reveal his power and his glory in the lives of this Shunemite family. And he did exactly that. He gave back her son from the dead. Can you imagine how family, friends and neighbours must have spoken about this incident. And it all can be credited to God. It must be credited to him. It was him who blessed her with a son. It was him who brought the boy back to life.

The Shunemite woman came from a wealthy family. She used her resources to build a room for the man of God and God blessed her twice. What she did for the prophet Elisha, she did out of the goodness of her heart. She didn't count the cost and God opened up the heavens for her. She did it not expecting anything. In fact she had no idea of what was coming.

We don't have to be rich to do anything for the Lord. However much or little we do have, if we do it to honour God even by blessing others, we make room for God to work in our lives.

The point I'm making is actually quite simple. When we make room for others, we make room for God. When that does happen God will display his majesty and glory and in essence we will be used of God to draw others to him.

Making room for God is an important part of our Christian walk in this life. We don't make room because we want blessings, we make room because He is the blessing.

The Shunemite woman built a room for Elisha not knowing what God was about to bring to her in the coming year, but she did it anyway. I believe God desires that we operate the same way. We fulfill his will because doing it is our reward. Doing it because it's built into our DNA to get it done.

Today, no matter the circumstance Make Room For God and see the splendor of his glory in your life. Bless someone. Help another. See God move. Don't do it because you want him to 'bless' you, do it because you have compassion for another. Bless him instead of waiting for him to bless you. Doing all this and not waiting for anything in return will open up doors for you where doors never existed before.

In essence the Shunemite woman really wasn't making room for Elisha, she was making room for God to move.

God bless and remember the more you make room the more you will see God in your life. Let Jesus do it for you.