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What If — Like Elisha — We Knew We Already Won?

The daily troubles of life provide plenty of anxiety at times. On top of that, we have the troubles we’re facing on a broader scale politically and culturally. I don’t need to give you a list of the challenges. If you’re reading this website, you already know. We’re living in serious times and everywhere you look it seems things are getting worse. What’s going to happen next? How’s it all going to turn out? The Bible tells us that the servant of the prophet Elisha had a “what-are-we-gonna-do?!” experience too.

2 Kings 6 records an account of Syria at war with Israel. The King of Syria was upset because his troop movements and strategies continued to be exploited. He suspected a spy among his war council but they informed the king, “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” The King didn’t like that at all so he ordered “horses and chariots and a great army” to go and seize the prophet. The next morning the servant of Elisha saw the enemy forces “all around the city.” He panicked, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” Elisha responded with a life-altering truth we can take to heart today.

“He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Elisha’s servant was living and dying with each play of the game but Elisha already knew the outcome. Elisha knew the full reality of the moment. Who could have predicted the outcome of this battle? Read the passage and you’ll see there was no battle at all. What began with an army invading with overwhelming force ended with: “And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.”

In the midst of the ups and downs of life we don’t have to live and die with each play. As we watch our nation change into something it was never meant to be, we don’t need to be discouraged. We don’t need to be consumed with worry. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. We know the outcome of the “game” (Revelation 22:1-5). Continue to be faithful and leave the final outcome in the hands of God. We can approach things with an entirely different level of confidence when we know we’ve already won.

Image: “Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum”; author: published by Guillaume Rouille (1518?-1589); public domain; copyright/expired

J WrightJeff Wright, Jr. is a grateful husband, blessed daddy, and long-suffering Redskins fan. He is a Prison Chaplain in the “city of lost souls,” holds a ThM from Dallas Seminary, and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. Jeff is a civil liberties activist on behalf of the “sacred order of freemen” and minister of the “fellowship of twice-born sinners.”

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