This morning I want you to know that God is relentless in his determination to love you, to take care of you, and to resolve all that happens for your good. If you believe that you become more courageous, no matter what happens. One of the ways God teaches us about his desire to do us good is through stories like this woman (we just read about). 2 Kings 4 tells us she was a prominent woman, but her husband was old and she had no children. We don’t know her name.  She is called the Shunamite, or the woman from Shunam.  

But she loved God and cared about God’s people. She set up a room in her home for Elisha to stay when he came through her village. Elisha wanted to do something for her, so he said to her. “By this time next year you will hold a son in your arms.”  She responded,  “Don’t lie to me, O man of God.” IE “Don’t give me a false promise.  I couldn’t stand to have my hopes lifted up and then dashed.”  

Well, a year later she had a baby boy. But when the boy was a little older, maybe like Christian or Ben, he went out into the field to help his father. But he felt a pain in his head.  His father sent him home to his mother.  She held him on her lap till noon then he died.  She immediately set out to see Elisha. He came, he prayed for him, and the boy came back to life. 

Then in 2 Kings 8 Elisha tells her a famine is coming and warns her to go to a foreign land to have food.  She goes but losses her home, land and income by doing that.   

Verse 3 “At the end of seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to the king to appeal for her house and her land. Now the king had been speaking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please relate to me all the great things Elisha has done.” And Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought the dead back to life. Just then the woman whose son Elisha had revived came to appeal to the king for her house and her land. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is the son Elisha restored to life.” When the king asked the woman, she confirmed it. So the king appointed for her an officer, saying, “Restore all that was hers, along with all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the country until now.”

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If you have been a Christian for awhile you know Romans 8:28.  “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”  But that has to jump off the page and get into your heart. That is why God tells us stories, all over the Bible, that SHOW us this promise. This story is here to increase your confidence that God will resolve everything you have been through, or EVER will go through, for your good, that he restores all losses, turns problems to good and suffering to glory.  It is to make you courageous, undaunted, NOT dismayed, not discouraged by ANYTHING that happens to you.  

Of course we get shook up by things that happen!  But only for a moment or for a short season.  Then we come back to this bold confidence in God.

No matter what happens to you, God has a plan. You don’t get the job?  You don’t make the team? God has a plan. You are not one of the beautiful or popular or gifted people?  God has a plan.  If you experience some REALLY lean years...God has a plan.  When life falls apart God has a plan.. Always!  Of course when family, work and circumstances are all good, that’s from God too. But the message of the Bible is that in all things at all times God’s people are in His hands for good. 

Psalm says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.”  We believe that by faith.   That is the power of this story.  It demonstrates the promise!  Unplanned and unexpected circumstances start lining up for this woman’s good. People show up and say things at just the right moment.  And you know it is God!  

From human standpoint, Elisha’s servant happened to go see the king one day, at a particular time. He could have gone any  other day, or the king could have been out of the office. And the story falls apart!  The king happened to ask him about the great things Elisha had done. There were so many miracles! But the servant just happened to tell the king about how Elisha brought the Shunamite woman’s boy back to life.  Then just at THAT moment, this woman ALONG with THIS boy came into the King’s chambers.  She had came to ask for her house and her land. 

She’d been gone for 7 years! She could have shown up any month any week, any day. She could have come 15 minutes earlier and the story collapses. She could have come by herself, WITHOUT HER SON.  THAT could have changed the king’s response. He could have said, “That’s tough, lady!”  But God intended to do good to her.  And it all fell in place.

And we see something here so wise, so skillful, such an arrangement of people and circumstances that the hand of God is clearly seen. 

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ...from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” God is in charge of history.  And God is in charge of your story.   With deep wisdom and knowledge God is weaving together the good plans for you life. Not that we understand everything for as it says his ways are beyond understanding.

We are not talking about things just falling into place, or saying things have a way of working out, or time heals all things.  We have a God who CAUSES all things to work for our good!  A God who makes all circumstances to bend and work for you. Nobody can get in His way or stop him.  

First Lesson. *The Lord has YOU in his mind and heart and in his plans.  We’re looking at the story of just one solitary woman. She is a nobody on the pages of history. Yet God works good for her with such skill and care.  God’s care for her, is to convince you of His care for YOU.

Our God says, “I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands.  Can a woman forget her nursing child?  Even if she could forget I will not forget you.”  God has plans for kings and nations and for all of history all mankind.  But for people like you and me too.  No child of God is too young or weak or insignificant to be overlooked by God.  He knows you. He knows your name, where you live, and he has plans for you.  Your life matters.

Second: God is up to something good even in trouble.  In fact much of what God begins in BIG trouble. But God is up to something good. Paul believed that!  When he was in prison in chains in Rome he wrote to the Philippians and urged them to rejoice with him, because “My circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel.”  

The story of the Shunamite woman starts with trouble. She was forced to leave her home because of a famine. This trouble came as judgment from the Lord for Israel’s sin and idolatry.  But God had a plan to take care of her.  

God may well bring down judgment on America in days ahead. We are flaunting God’s laws.  No people on earth have ever gotten away with that.  And when God deals with a nation, God’s people ARE affected! Yet we should not fear!  There is nothing that can happen in the world (or in your life) that can make Rom 8:28 untrue. God had a plan for the Shunamite woman and he does for you too.  God is able to care for his people even in times of judgment. 

Until we are in heaven, God’s good for us, will often be worked out THOUGH trouble and evil.  God has only allowed evil for a short time...but we live IN that time.  The day is coming when God will wipe away every tear. Pain and sorrow will be things of the past. We’re not there yet.  But God has promised to make the evil and pain in this life serve the good of his people.  

In Divine Providence: There is a letter written to a troubled lady.  “My dear sister, fear nothing, keep firm, take courage; God is with you and you have nothing to fear even if you were in the midst of unchained devils.  Nothing can happen to you save by the permission of God. (And) He will permit nothing that will not turn to your advantage, as long as you confide in the goodness of so faithful a Friend, so tender a Father, so powerful a Protector...Be consoled, therefore and put your mind at rest and remain in peace.  God is with you and for you.”                                                                                                                     

Jay Adams wrote an excellent little book “How to handle trouble.”  The first three points are: God is in the trouble.  God is up to something.  God is up to something good.”  If you want to be an overcomer in life, you must discipline yourself to believe this.  This is not just saying everything happens for a reason.  This is unshakable confidence in a good outcome because your life is directed by your Heavenly Father who cares for you! As a person, as his child!  Just like he cared for this one solitary woman, the Shunamite. 

Second: The promise of all things turning to our good is for those who love him. This is the forgotten phrase of Romans 8:28.  The Shunamite woman loved God.  She supported Elisha and his work.  She cared about the things God cares about.  She obeyed Elisha when warned her to flee.  Elisha was God’s mouthpiece to her and she immediately obeyed.   

The way you know someone loves God is if they obey God. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments.  

That is not always easy! The Shunamite had to give up her home and land and go to a foreign country.  Yet THAT was God’s place of protection for her, and her son, safe from the ravages of famine.  IF she had disobeyed the Lord’s counsel from Elisha she would have kept her home, but likely starved along with her boy.  Good came because she obeyed God. 

If we say “I know this isn’t what God wants, but I’m going to do it anyway” that is just another way of saying I don’t love God.  True Christians are a people who love God and seek to obey him!     

Fourth: We do what we can, and leave it to God to work the wonders.  This woman is just going to the king to ask for her house and land back.  It is just life.  She is just doing what she knows to do next.  And yet, GOD IS IN THIS!  Life isn’t about OUR cleverness, it’s about HIS wisdom and HIS plans!  

Prov. 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.”  There is this mundane element of life. So much of what we do feels so ordinary.  We do the next right thing. We see a need and do what we can to meet it.  We read and pray.  We get up at night and take care of sick kids. We get our family to church.  AND YET GOD IS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU IN THOSE THINGS, working his plans for good. And often it comes out of you just doing what you know to do.

In 1984 I was told by Cindy’s doctor that she probably had no more than two weeks to live.  We had been through all the chemo treatments and nothing worked.  I had no idea what to do.  As kind of a shot in the dark, I went and asked her surgeon for some pain medication. Unknown to me, and I believe prompted by God, he called an Oncologist Dr. Schreck and this surgeon and oncologist showed up on our door step on the far south side of Des Moines. Even in 1984 top surgeons and a leading oncologist don’t just show up at your door.  That led to treatments that resulted in Cindy being completely healed and clear of cancer.  My point is that we just simply did what we knew to do next and God worked the wonders. 

Fifth: The end of God’s story for God’s people is restoration.  One of the way he works good for you is that he restores things to you. He takes our trouble, pain, even evil done to us and resolves it all for good. Verse 6 “Restore all that was hers, along with all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the country until now.”  God delights to restore things to us!

Restoration is a beautiful word. It means a return to former  glory or better times.  Peter called the coming new heaven and earth “the restoration of all things”, which God promised long ago through the holy prophets.”  Acts 3:21 Restoration is the ultimate end or story of salvation.  

Because of sin, what we all lost, was God. And what will be restored to us, is God.  We will be his people and he will be our God and we will see his face and serve him forever and ever.  Jesus comes to remove sin and the curse, to restore peace and joy and intimacy with God.”   What we lost in the Garden will be restored to us, and more!

The Lord promised restoration to his people in Joel 2:25,26 “I will restore to you the years eaten by locusts...(NASB I will make up to you the years..)26You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame”.  That’s God’s finale for your life. 

In this case the locusts came as judgment for the people’s sin and rebellion and idolatry.  Their own sin brought the wasted years!  Yet God promised to restore all they had lost and more if they turn to him!!  However your own sin may have destroyed relationships and opportunities, and years of your life.  God will restore those years and the lost blessings of those years.  Grace! 

And God DOES restore and heal and make up for losses here in this life just like he did for the Shunamite woman!  

As you go through life, you lose things, things get broken or taken from you.  Sometimes friendships, and sadly marriages fall apart. Bodies get broken and weak. Sometimes we lose our joy and laughter.  I don’t know how many people I’ve heard say, after going through divorce or estrangement from a son or daughter or the death of a child, “I don’t know if I will ever be able to be happy again.”  We do feel those losses.  

My dad went through a bitter experience of being fired from his job by a Pastor whom he considered a close friend, who served on the board of the retirement home.  And my dad lost something through that experience, a friendship and lost faith in Pastors, for a time.  But eventually that experience led him into the closest friendships of his life with Pastor David Brown who did his funeral.  So, we should NOT brood over our losses or dwell in self pity, because we serve a God who restores what was lost, what was taken, what was broken.  And we are supposed to believe that!  And live in anticipation of that! 

God is a God who restores and replaces and makes up for ALL losses, EITHER now or at the resurrection, and usually both!  When Peter said to Jesus, “we have left everything and followed you.” (Lord we have lost a lot!  Did you notice?) Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.  Jesus desires and promises restoration!  Many times over!  Some now, Much for certain in the age to come!  

So we should look for God to do that even in small disappointments as well as those that shake us to the core.  Cindy has a short prayer she uses in disappointment or loss. “God, make it up to me”.  That’s a good prayer because it shows an expection that God is a God who makes up what we lose.  Paul expected to see good come out of his trials.  He had the freedom to see the advantages of his imprisonment because he believed that God does actually cause all things to work for good!  Believe that and it will open your eyes to see how God is working for good in your life.  

*So ..Give yourself without fear and without reservation to God and his plans.  Proverbs 31 says the excellent wife “smiles at the future”.  We face life with a smile, with open arms, with boldness, with courage.  I was reading recently about the Saxon invaders of England.  The Saxon is most ferocious of all foes, he is bold,  undaunted, he faces all resistance with contempt!  “Shipwrecks are of no terror to him, but he sees them as only so much training.  He is not merely acquainted with the perils of the sea; he knows them as he knows himself”.  And he is fearless of them!”  

If pagan barbarians could show that much pluck in the face of shipwreck and hardship, how much more the man or woman of God who knows that God has his back!!   We not just trying to pretend we are tough.  We are people who know that God has our back. 

God is ALWAYS at work.  God always has a plan.  And it it always ultimately for the good of his people, his kingdom, his church and FOR YOU.  Believe and be of good courage.