2 Kings – Chapter 13

And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped. ¹⁹Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.” 2 Kings 13:18-19 – Why was Elisha having the king do all this with the bow and arrow, and why was Elisha so angry with the king for not striking more times when it seems no direction was given? Elisha was giving the king what Israel’s state would be after Elisha’s death. That while Elisha was to die, the Lord who was actually protecting them was alive forever. While the king had some context on what was going on, his actions in that moment would dictate the future battle victories over his enemy. Life and death were hanging in the balance of how many times the king struck these arrows. While it may seem odd that the Lord would allow such things like life and death be held in the choices of man, isn’t this the case with our choice to share the Gospel? Our choice today to be faithful to the Lord by sharing His good news with the lost is holding the lost’s eternal life in our hands. When we refuse to share, when we refuse to care about the lost and their eternal life, we are making a choice that could keep them from ever hearing the Gospel. Hopefully we are not the only individual or the only way that God is going to introduce Himself to them through, but we may be. You today may be the only person that will ever introduce Jesus to that individual…will you? While we don’t know how many Christians will pass by them or how long they still have to live, we do know they need Jesus today. Let’s share that with them. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3079

And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. 2 Kings13:21 – First off, how crazy is that that story! Could you imagine seeing that all happen! Outside all that though, we really get a clear viewing through this story as to where our real power comes from. We’ve seen through these past few devotions how Elisha was being used to do so many miracles. We can begin to think that it was Elisha doing them and Elisha’s power bringing them about. Yet here we see the dead bones of Elisha. He is no longer there at all except his remains, yet there is power there enough to raise a man from the dead. How’s that possible? Because the power wasn’t of Elisha, the power was from God. While Elisha wasn’t there anymore in that body, God’s presence is everywhere and if He wanted to use a dead body to perform a miracle nothing is stopping Him. We see here it was God the whole time through Elisha bringing the power and with you it’s the same. The power you are looking for to change your life isn’t just within you it’s within God. God’s the one who can really change things at the level we’re praying for so begin leaning on Him for the change rather than just on yourself. If God can bring life using dead bones, what amazing possibilities do you think He could do through you? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 383

So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. 2 Kings 13:20-21 – God brings life to things once dead and the ways He can do that pass our imagination. So don’t limit God by saying He can’t bring life to this situation or person because of “____.” In this story, a guy was thrown onto the grave of Elisha and he was brought back to life. God’s not limited by anything so let’s not limit Him in our prayers and expectations of Him coming through on His promises to us. Whatever you see that’s dead around you, God has the power to bring life to it. Trust that, expect that, pray for that, and follow His lead with that. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1036

He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from them. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them continually into the hand of Hazael king of Syria and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael. Then Jehoahaz sought the favor of the Lord, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them. 2 Kings 13:2-4 – I know this doesn’t seem much like a Christmas passage, but if you were here for our Christmas Eve services last night you might say this lines up perfectly with what we spoke on. See Christmas is about salvation being born. We who had turned away from God can turn to God and find rescue. Here in our passage the king was taking many steps away from the Lord, yet after seeing the turmoil that brought, turned to the Lord and the Lord listened to him. Today, know if your story has taken steps away from Jesus, just like the king in our story you can turn to Jesus today and find God waiting for you. This is the most precious gift anyone could offer, life with God and forgiveness of our sin! Thank you Jesus that we can at any point in our journey, no matter how far we’ve gotten, we can turn to you! Merry Christmas! I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2219