There are times when something happens that we cannot explain—a sudden accident, a miscarriage, a divorce, or a delayed building project. We wonder where God is during those times. It becomes our moment of blindness. In this week’s episode, we will hear about the story of Elisha and the Syrian army.Contributor: Today we hear from Marissa as she shares about how God worked in her life as a young person.

There are times when something happens that we cannot explain—a sudden accident, a miscarriage, a divorce, or a delayed building project. We wonder where God is during those times. It becomes our moment of blindness. In this week’s episode, we will hear about the story of Elisha and the Syrian army.Contributor: Today we hear from Marissa as she shares about how God worked in her life as a young person.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Starting with Jesus

Heather Bennett

Katie Chitwood

Reflect and Renew March 2023

Blessings From Heaven

God’s Care for His Servants

Four Lepers Find Food

A Faithful Slave


But even through the tears and even some mistakes and pitfalls, I trusted God and stayed true to my conviction. And in the midst of this heartache, God led me to reconnect with a childhood friend, who also happened to be an old crush, who was looking for God just like I was. Then we eventually studied the Bible together, got baptized the same day, and then later got married. Welcome to Reflect and Renew. Hey, I'm Katie.

I'm so glad that you'll be joining me today. We will be learning and growing together in our walk with Jesus. You will surely be encouraged and challenged as we study week by week and hear from the experiences of others. Have you ever been frustrated by delay? Or maybe you were wondering why things were going the way that they were.

It can be challenging to trust that God is leading, even when everything seems so dark and when we don't understand. The story from this week is from 2 Kings chapter 6. It's about some Syrian soldiers who come to capture Elisha. He's been telling the king of Israel all their secret plans and so they figure you know if we can just take out Elisha then we can stop the information being leaked to the king of Israel. You know it boggles my mind that they thought to destroy Elisha and they didn't think that he would know.

He's the 1 who knows what the King's planning even into his own bedroom. So how would he not know that they're coming after him? They assumed, I guess, that they were just gonna go in and capture Elisha. So when the soldiers get there to that city, they surround the city. The servant's afraid.

He goes to Elisha and says, oh no what's gonna happen? Elisha says, don't worry there's more with us than are against us. Then he prays that God will strike them with blindness and goes out bravely to talk to the commander. He tells him, you know what? It's not here.

Come with me. I'll take you to the man whom you're looking for. These soldiers who are struck with blindness, can you just like imagine it? They're tough, they're macho soldiers and now they're having to be led around. They're stumbling, they're tripping, They're feeling their way.

Then it's Elisha who leads them into the capital city of Samaria where what? They're trapped! They have no way of escape. They must have imagined that they would be destroyed, taken out, wiped out, right then, right there. Israel could defeat their enemies.

But is that what Elisha counsels the king to do? No, he counsels the king to feed these soldiers and then send them home. They were to show mercy, not vengeance. In our devotional this week, Merle brings out the lesson that the Syrian soldiers saw the God of Israel as just another god placed on a shelf with all the others. They had no knowledge of his power.

They had no knowledge of his love or his authority. But when they left Samaria, their eyes had been opened, both literally and figuratively. It's in those hard times, it's in the times of our own blindness, that God can still lead us. He leads us to the place where He wants us. Going through those hard times helps us to learn.

They help us to grow. It helps us to appreciate God for who He is. There was a time when I was at the end of my rope. I could not see what God was doing. I was frustrated, Feeling guilty, feeling confused, in complete despair and utter hopelessness.

It was at that lowest point that I cried out to God and I asked Him, Why? What was I doing wrong? What was I missing? I don't understand. I don't see.

I don't get it. I don't know what to do. It was all I could do to turn to Him and tell Him that He was going to have to do something. It was in that moment of blindness that I heard God's voice. He spoke to me and I wrote it down right there as I was listening, as I was hearing it.

And this is what he said. He said to me, you will have a story to tell of my faithfulness. And through this, your faith will grow. Then the words to this verse came to mind, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things of which you do not know. Call to me.

In that moment of darkness, I remember sitting there at the kitchen table, and I clung to the verse. And I told God, Okay, I'm calling to you. And now I'm going to trust that you will answer, that you will show me great and mighty things. I cannot see it now, but I choose to trust." And you know what? He answered.

He did answer in a big way. And I'll tell that story at another time. But today, looking back, looking ahead, my faith is stronger. I have a story to tell of God's faithfulness. I have seen and I have experienced that blindness, that helplessness.

And then I experienced the beauty of having my eyes opened and seeing how God was leading me. This week we hear from Marissa. She's a mom of 2 little ones and she actually helps us here on our podcasts in different ways, recording and all kinds of different things that whenever we ask she's always willing. She's going to share with us how she followed and trusted God even when she didn't want to, even when it was hard, but it was in his time that he brought about beauty for her and for her family. Hi, My name is Marissa.

Growing up, I knew God existed. So I went to church now and then with my parents and even joined a few youth groups when I was in high school. But it wasn't until much later, as a young adult in college, that I truly gave my life to him. I was living life the way a lot of teens and young people do, but I was so unhappy. I felt empty, like something was missing.

My recently converted older sister had been patiently praying for me and coaxing me into truly giving God a chance. And finally, I did. But in the midst of learning more about God, I got into a relationship that was leading me away from him. Over time, as I grew closer to God, I started to feel convicted I needed to end the relationship but I kept pushing that conviction away. It wasn't until a Bible seminar where the speaker said something along the lines of, if you're in a relationship you know you need to end, do it.

Then I thought to myself, yes, this is what I need to do. I finally did, but it was hard. For a whole year, I often cried and asked God, why can't I just stay with this person? Who am I going to find that's better? But even through the tears and even some mistakes and pitfalls, I trusted God and stayed true to my conviction.

And in the midst of this heartache, God led me to reconnect with a childhood friend, who also happened to be an old crush who was looking for God just like I was. Then we eventually studied the Bible together, got baptized the same day, and then later got married. If I wouldn't have trusted God through the pain of a hard breakup, I wouldn't have ended up with who I'm with today. Someone who I actually daydreamed about being with as a preteen. Now, fast forward a few years into our marriage.

I was ready to be a mom. I wanted to have a baby so badly, but my husband was still in school and we both knew waiting until he was finished was the right decision. But I struggled. Really struggled. For a whole year, which isn't a long time but felt like an eternity to me, I dealt with unpleasant feelings of jealousy and bitterness as others around me were starting or growing their families.

In these situations, I did feel like I was being blindly led just like the Syrian soldiers, not knowing what to expect, even expecting the worst, but then being warmly surprised, walking away with something and someone much better than I ever could have thought. During the time I wanted a baby, God revealed I had a condition that needed to be addressed or else I may not have been able to have a baby at all. Now my husband and I are both dedicated to following the Lamb wherever He goes and raising our 2 girls in the joy of knowing and following the Lord. I don't know where you are with your walk with God today. It might be that you're in the midst of the blindness.

You don't understand and you can't see. It may be that you're looking back and you can see the beauty that God has created with your life. Either way, wherever you're at, each 1 of us, we're all on a journey. Each place can be beautiful if we choose to call to Him. If we choose to trust God, He will show us great and mighty things which we did not know.

Were you able to find and download our devotional this week? You can always find it at startingwithjesus.com slash renew. Our challenge this week is to take some time to remind yourself where God has shown up for you in your life. Maybe you want to write it down in a journal. Maybe you want to pull out your phone and look back at the photos or videos that remind you of how God has led, how he has been faithful to you, even when you didn't understand.

Maybe you just want to take some quiet time to think about where you were and where you are today, how God has been leading you step by step. But maybe you're in the midst of that blindness. Maybe you don't know what to do. And it's hard to see how God is working in the moment, then I want to encourage you to look up some Bible promises. Some key words would be trust, faith, strength, weary.

Look up some verses that will help you in your blindness today, because it won't last forever. Did the Syrian soldiers, did their blindness last forever? No, it was only for a short time, but that blindness led them to see who God really was. And our blindness today can lead us to see who God is. And then don't forget, We all want to thank God.

We want to surrender ourselves to Him and to the work that He is doing in us once again today. Dear Lord, I pray for each listener that You will give them the strength they need for today. Give them the energy. Give them the focus, the patience. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.

I want you to know that you are a God who loves, you are a God who cares, and you are there for us. In Jesus name, Amen. This podcast is sponsored by Starting With Jesus. To find out more about other programs or to find out the links that were shared in this podcast, just check out the description box below.

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Series

Reflect and Renew March 2023

God’s Care for His Servants

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Other Teachings in Series

Blessings From Heaven

24m

God’s Care for His Servants

13m

Four Lepers Find Food

18m

A Faithful Slave

17m

Sound Doctrine