“Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of
your life will be many.” —Proverbs 4:10
During my childhood years, my
mother would often remind my siblings and me to shut the door when we were running
in and out of the house. My mother is
now in heaven, put I can recall her voice calling out, “shut the door…were you
born in a barn?”
The Bible tells us of a woman in
2 Kings 4:1 – 7 who was in a crisis
situation in her life. Her husband
had died, and her two sons were about to be taken away from her because she
could not pay her debts. She had no where to go, and no one had came to help
her in her crisis except someone
that she recognized heard from God, the prophet Elisha. Elisha had asked the woman what was in her
house that could be used as a seed for the answer to her crisis. She replied that she
had a jar of oil. Elisha instructed the
woman to borrow as many vessels as she could from everyone she knew. Furthermore, she and her sons were to go into
her house, shut the door and fill all of the jars. Her container of oil flowed to fill all the
jars, and then ceased flowing when the last jar was filled. The abundance of oil that God supplied met
her need in the paying of her debts.
The prophetic voice
in her crisis situation told her to
shut the door to her home. We can only
speculate as to why the prophet told her to shut the door. But, it is possible that she was to shut the
door to distractions and possible intrusions that would have gotten her to
abandon the instructions given by the prophet.
To hear the voice of God in a
crisis situation deliberately purpose in your heart to shut out the world’s
noise and confusion.
Prayer—Lord, I purpose in my heart to shut out the outside influences
in my life; so that, I can hear your instructions clearly and plainly. Lord will You please speak to me in a way
that I can understand and obey what You instruct me to do, in Jesus Name. Amen.
