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Have you ever asked this question in the middle of a trial?

Why is God taking so long?
If He loves me, why has nothing changed?
If He can fix this, why hasn’t He?

In this message, I want to speak directly to the tension we all feel when we are waiting on God. The real struggle is not usually whether God is able. The struggle is His timing.

What the Bible Says About God’s Detailed Care for You

Before we talk about waiting, we have to establish something foundational.

Psalm 139 tells us that God knit us together in our mother’s womb. Every day of our lives was written in His book before one of them came to be. Jesus said the very hairs on our head are numbered.

Not counted. Numbered.

That means nothing about your life is random. Nothing passes through your life without passing through His hand. When you understand how intricately God knows you, you can begin to find peace even before your situation changes.

If God is that detailed, then delay cannot mean neglect.

Why Waiting on God Feels So Hard

In every trial, there is a moment where fear creeps in.

Does God see this?
Has He forgotten me?
Is He punishing me?
If He cared, would He not fix this right now?

Most of us do not struggle with whether God exists. We struggle with why He is not moving faster.

We are finite. We live in days and hours. But God lives in eternity. His timing is not reactive. It is intentional.

The problem is never God. He is always the answer. But when He does not answer when we expect Him to, we can begin to treat Him like the problem.

Timing is the battleground of faith.

Biblical Examples of God’s Perfect Timing

If you want encouragement while you are waiting, look at Scripture.

Noah and the Long Obedience

Noah built the ark for one hundred years. He endured ridicule and misunderstanding for a century before the rain ever fell. God was not late. The timing preserved both Noah’s family and God’s redemptive promise.

Sometimes obedience takes longer than we imagined. But God’s timing is always purposeful.

Hannah and Delayed Promise

Hannah endured years of barrenness and public humiliation. Yet her waiting was tied to something bigger than she understood. Samuel could not be born until she was ready to surrender him back to the Lord.

Her delay was connected to destiny.

Waiting is not abandonment. There is a reason, and God is good.

Jesus and Divine Appointment

Even Jesus lived by divine timing. He often said, “My hour has not yet come.” Everything about His life, ministry, suffering, and resurrection happened at the appointed time.

If the Son of God walked by divine timing, so will we.

Does God Allow Trials Without Purpose?

No.

If you are walking in obedience, seeking His guidance, and following His Word, you do not have to fear that your suffering is meaningless. God does not allow unnecessary trials in the lives of His children.

We create difficulty when we take matters into our own hands outside of His will. But when we are surrendered to Him, even the hard seasons serve a greater purpose.

Your trial has a time limit.

The Shunammite Woman and a Timed Trial

In 2 Kings 8, Elisha warns the Shunammite woman that a famine is coming and it will last seven years

Seven years is not a short inconvenience. It is a major life interruption.

She had to leave her home, her land, and her security. She obeyed immediately and relocated her entire household. That obedience preserved her family.

Then at the exact end of the seven years, she returned to appeal to the king. At that precise moment, the king was discussing the miracles of Elisha. Her story was being told at the very second she walked in.

The king restored her home, her land, and even the income she had lost.

Her trial had a set duration. It did not last forever.

Yours will not either.

How to Trust God When You Feel Forgotten

If you are in the middle of a long season, here is what I want you to remember:

• God has not forgotten you.
• God is not late.
• God is not the problem.
• God is working according to a sovereign plan.

The same God who ordained your days and numbered your hairs is orchestrating details you cannot yet see.

When Peter walked on water, he only began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. Storms do not determine stability. Focus does.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Finding Peace While Waiting on God

Peace does not come from understanding the timeline. Peace comes from trusting the One who controls it.

You may not understand why it is taking longer than you hoped. But you can know this with certainty:

There is a timing.
There is a purpose.
There is an end to this season.

God is good. He is sovereign. He is detailed. He is faithful.

And He will see you through.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Power of God’s Word

02:55 Understanding God’s Love and Care

05:48 The Importance of Timing in Trials

09:05 Examples of God’s Timing: Noah and Hannah

12:06 The Shunammite Woman’s Story

15:05 God’s Provision and Restoration

17:48 Conclusion and Encouragement

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:00.066)
Hi everyone, welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. If you are new here today, we just love studying the word here. This is a community of people who value the word of God and know its power and impact in our life. And we love to study the word of God because it affects everything in our life. And we have recently been going through the book of second Kings and today we will be in

Second Kings chapter eight. But before we dig into the actual text today, I just, I felt so kind of overwhelmed during the time that I was studying this, I had gotten a new type of devotional book and I was reading through it and came across one, one little,

sentence in there that just sparked something that was, I realized, okay, this is not just for me. This is for you. And it’s, it’s finding the balance between whatever we’re going through, having peace to be able to go through that circumstance.

And at the same time that we’re having peace, that peace has to become like a weapon or the foundation for the timing of an issue because we often are thrown off by time. So I’m going to explain what I mean by that. But what I felt so strongly and, and

directed by the Lord I feel for you today is you need to know how intricately God knows you, how specifically he knows you. He cares about you. He loves you. And so before I dig into this, I want to start by giving you

Jaime Luce (02:25.632)
A scripture in Psalms and this is, I forgot to write the reference on here. Psalm 139 and this is verses 13 through 18, just to give you a backdrop before I kind of even give you an intro into today. Okay. so it says in verse 13, for you created my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God. How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still

with you.

Now you may not be the type of personality that is, know, ooey gooey mushy lovey dovey, whatever. and, you may be either way when a trial comes, when something that shakes you hits you, you know, as scripture says that the one built his house on the sand, the one built his house on the rock.

Jaime Luce (04:23.372)
The rain came and the wind blew and the storm beat the waves beat upon that house. It happens to both and only one stands. We know that the scripture tells us that it rains on the just and the unjust. There are seasons where, okay, so we can see just in nature, God’s provision and care for everyone, no matter.

If you serve him, don’t serve him, no matter if you are animal or human, no matter if you are, if you are, you are created and because you are created and living on this earth that he created, there is his provision based off of seed time and harvest. This is the promise he gave to us after the flood. So we can see his common grace that is bestowed on all. But when a Christian

someone who is doing their best to walk by faith according to the standards and the morality and the law of God, not because it earns us anything, simply because the scripture has taught us and the Lord has told us that if we will do these things, it will go well for us. That we understand God’s ways are the best ways. So we do our best to follow those, to live by that. But when a circumstance

comes and hits against our house or beats against us even in our flesh with sickness or a circumstance or finances or relationships, whatever can hit us. When we enter those trials, it doesn’t matter. Usually, I know some of us have fought some of these battles and won, but one of the first battles that we face is

Okay, God, where are you and do you love me? Because I need to know you care that I’m going through this. Because if I know you care, that means you’ll do something about it. So we tend to forget in those moments, even if just for a little bit, or, even if we don’t forget, we’re hoping and clinging to seeing the evidence that God loves us.

Jaime Luce (06:45.088)
So I wanted to start this off just by reminding you how much you’re loved. Whether you’re the kind of person who needs a bunch of love or not shown to you in certain ways or to hear how much God loves you. Sometimes you need to know, he really does love me. So he cares about me. He cares about what I’m going through. He cares about this thing I’m dealing with. That he knit you in your mother’s womb. He had all your days planned.

before you even had a day that scripture in particular, I cling to because that means that if he planned with specific, how do you say that with being very specific? That’s not the word I want, but I can’t get it. specificity. There it is. When he plans for that in my life, that means

that there’s nothing that comes into my life that doesn’t have to pass through his hands if I belong to him. If I belong to him. If I’ve given my life and given him permission to have my life, then I don’t have to fear that whatever I’m going through isn’t passing through his hand. And in his hand, I am secure. In his hand, I am loved and I am cared for. He sees

every single thing. He is sovereign. So I want you to take that thought for a moment, kind of chew on that for a minute. And I wrote something and I want to read it the way I wrote it. So forgive me if you’re watching this versus listening to this and you see me kind of glued to my notes here for a moment, but I want to read this to you.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see God orchestrate His omniscience, which is His all-knowing, His providence, which is His divine guidance and forethought, and His sovereignty, which is His supreme control. Mightily at work, we see this.

Jaime Luce (09:05.25)
from the very beginning, old Testament to new Testament mightily at work. All of these things.

and displayed in the most intricate ways in the lives of individuals down to the smallest details. Whether building an ark or a tabernacle or designing clothes or pieces of furniture or building a family or healing sickness or mending a broken heart.

or bringing deliverance. We can see the immense love of God for us, not just in the amount of uniqueness to the personal attention that he shows us, but in his perfect execution of timing in our lives.

His love and supreme care is illustrated in the details. For instance, in Matthew 10 30 and in Luke 12 seven, the scripture tells us that the very hairs of our head are numbered, not just counted, meaning like you have this many total hairs, but numbered. Each one is numbered. He knows if one falls out,

what number hair that was. You are that uniquely cared for, loved, and created in such a unique fashion that he cares about every tiny detail. Your hairs are numbered. And then in Luke 21, 18, when Jesus is actually wanting to encourage

Jaime Luce (11:05.89)
discouraged disciples because they are hearing about end time things that are scary. Listen to what Jesus says. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. So he’s numbered those hairs and he’s telling you I’ve got you down to not losing a hair over this. That is extremely specific.

And that is extremely

Jaime Luce (11:42.19)
personal

and shows the extreme and mighty care, the vastness, the hugeness of God’s care over the details of your life. I think that’s massive.

Jaime Luce (12:06.358)
You can find peace in the face of any trial when you understand the fierce, meticulous awareness and care that God has for you, that He covers you with.

But it’s in the middle of our trial. From the time it begins, somewhere on that journey before it’s ended, wherever that middle is, is where there is an element that I think almost all of us face, some of us for longer stints, some of us for shorter.

But I think all of us deal with it. And what it is, is it’s a fear that I think kind of makes us crumble. And the fear is, does God care? Has he forgotten me? Does he see this? Doesn’t he see what’s going on? If God cared, wouldn’t he change this right now? Because I know he can. I think all of us,

ask those questions. And then we start to think, has God forgotten us? Is he angry with us? Is he turning his back on us? Is, have I done something? Is this, have I done something that’s unforgivable? Is, am I being punished? We go through a list of all of these questions because we’re in the middle of a trial.

And we somehow in the middle of the trial forget, even if just for a moment, how much he loves us. Every detail, every day. Hi, my name is Jaime Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled, You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision. And I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now.

Jaime Luce (14:24.066)
The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do. And so many times we think we need the money, but you don’t need money. I’m telling you the answer is you need God. And that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon.

You can also go to jamylouc.com. You can also find this book at youdon’tneedmoneyyoujustneedgod.com. This book is available today.

Jaime Luce (15:05.57)
I’m going to be taking us through some examples, not just in Second Kings. I want to drive this point home. So it might be a good idea if you are struggling and you need remembering and you need examples of where God has so faithfully cared for those

who struggled just like you did, who had to wait on God and live through hardship. This won’t be an exhaustive list. I’m just going to give you a few, but you may wanna write them down. Take some time this week to do some study with them on your own. See their whole story. See what they felt. See what they said and see what God did. But look at it from

the perspective that you can take of that 30,000 foot perspective and you can see their beginning and their end and you can see the whole process and maybe you can see yourself in it so you can take encouragement from it today. But.

Jaime Luce (16:19.944)
In our quest for staying in faith while we’re in this place of fear, in the middle of this, there is one issue that I think stands above them all as the thing that we get hung up on. Any guesses? The answer is timing.

timing. I think we all get really hung up on timing. And part of the problem is that we live, we are finite individuals and we have days on this earth that begin and will end. And yet there is an eternity and we are aware of it. And we know someday we will be living in that eternity. And there is a whole kingdom already working, been at work, pre-existing you and me.

that is so much more real than what we can grasp here in our five little senses that we have. That it is so troubling to us because we’re finite, that where we’re in a trial, we think this needs to end right now. I can’t take another moment of this. God, do you see what this is doing?

how this is affecting me and my life or those that we love. And truth be told, timing is everything. It’s everything. Timing is what makes a joke either be funny or not land and it’s a dud. Timing is everything. Timing for buying a house is everything. Finding the right house at the right time when you’ve got the right amount of money.

doing, getting an education, anything that we do, being fed when you’re hungry. mean, timing, you can have just ate a bunch of stuff because you were hungry, you couldn’t wait, and all of a sudden you get offered, someone wants to take you to this great dinner, and it’s gonna be all these courses, and you’re not even hungry. Timing is everything. It really is.

Jaime Luce (18:46.476)
The same way that when we talk about real estate and we say location, location, location in our life and in our trials and in the circumstances we deal with, I’m telling you timing is everything. The problem is we think always, we always feel this way. We think God is late. He should have already shown up by now. We almost, if not do regularly,

without realizing what we’re doing, we are saying, God, you’re the problem. We’re bringing an indictment against God. He’s not on time. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. And we can get mad at God and blame God in the middle of our circumstance. And it’s because we don’t understand God’s time. God is never wrong.

Just in case you needed to know, God is never wrong. The problem is never God. The problem is never God. He is always the answer, never the problem. But we tend to consider him the problem when we know he’s the answer, but he’s not answering when we want him to answer or how we want him to answer. We hold him responsible.

So here’s your first example. I want you to see that you are not alone in this, that God has given to us examples in scripture, and we can watch how God operated, and we can take encouragement by knowing He’s not late. He’s always on time. You have not been forgotten, child of God. You have not been forgotten, my friend.

If you are a brother and sister in the Lord, if you call God your father and you are his child, I can promise you he’s not late. He’s right on time. He’s right on time. So let’s look at this first example. I’m not gonna give you all the scripture references. I want you to, you have a little homework to do if you want to, but I’m gonna give you the scenario. So we look at the life of Noah and

Jaime Luce (21:12.128)
In the circumstance for Noah, everything is terrible. There’s nothing but wickedness. In fact, we feel like we’re living that right now. We have now learned of the most atrocious wickedness and things happening that none of us could ever fathom. And it is happening on such a massive scale. It is really difficult to wrap my mind around. And I’m sure it is for you too.

You just can’t even believe it’s real because it’s just so bad. And because it’s so bad and there is so much evil, we forget that Jesus said that it will be as in the days of Noah is what it will be in the last days. Such wickedness, such extreme wickedness. And God is saying at the time of Noah, I regret that I ever made man. And he’s gonna wipe him out.

but he can’t wipe them all out because then he wouldn’t be true to his word. He couldn’t bring complete destruction because he had already promised when Adam fell that he would bring salvation and that the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman, but she would crush his head. We already knew the plan of salvation and the plan of redemption was set in motion. If you wipe everybody out,

That means God didn’t do what he said. Well, that’s impossible. So he claims a man who is not yet corrupted, who is righteous in God’s eyes and has not been corrupted. He hasn’t been corrupted by, because this was the time of the Nephilim. His DNA hasn’t been corrupted. is still, God has a man and his family line is still secure. So God saves Noah and gives him a command. And because Noah is righteous,

And because he fears God, he listens to the instructions of God and does it. And what does God tell him to do? He says, build an ark, build an ark. And God is so specific that he literally gives him the building plans to build an ark. Noah’s never built an ark. There was no understanding of an ark because there was never rain.

Jaime Luce (23:36.046)
You would never need such a structure. No one had ever built a structure like this. And it’s going to take 100 years to build it. It is such a massive call and so important that the length of time that it will take to build this structure is 100 years.

Now, I want you to think about this because for 100 years, that means Noah had to endure. He endured great ridicule and persecution. This was not just an easy task. Hey, go out and build a boat. know, if you’re in the NCIS TV show and the old ones anyway, and you’re not building a boat in your basement where no one knows or sees unless you go down in the basement. It’s an arc.

that’s gonna be so massive that you can’t not see it. You can’t not see it. And this is absurd to people. This makes no sense to people. But it never does to the one who doesn’t believe. It never does. We’re always ridiculed by those who don’t believe. People who say, I don’t know why you’re waiting on God.

Doesn’t look like he’s showing up.

Don’t you think if God wanted it different, He’d have changed it by now? There’s so many things people say to not encourage you in your faith and to tear down your faith.

Jaime Luce (25:18.24)
You can think, I’ve been waiting a long time, Lord. Have you waited 100 years? Have you endured 100 years? It’s a long time, a long time. But he did it. He endured, he obeyed, he built the structure.

And not only was he and his family saved, but God’s promise was saved and endured.

It’s always bigger than what we think. It’s always bigger than what we think. Always.

That timing was imperative. Everything God does is so timingly specific. It is down to the minute everything is planned. There is a plan in motion. There is a plan in motion for Jesus’ return. And it’s not whenever God’s in the mood. It’s when God has, he has already

decided the day. He just hasn’t shared it with us. Wasn’t that what we’re used to? That’s why it’s a walk of faith. That’s why it’s a walk of faith. Scripture tells us even the son doesn’t know the day or the hour. Only the father knows this. We have to walk by faith. There’s no other way. Jesus had to walk out that faith. He had to go to the cross by that faith.

Jaime Luce (26:55.242)
in a flesh suit, living with the same things we live with in the flesh. Though he was fully God, he was fully man.

All I want to give you a second example.

Hannah, if you are familiar with Hannah, Hannah was barren. She was married to her husband who adored her, but he also had a second wife whose name was Panina. And Panina vexed sore is what the word says. Vexed sore poor Hannah. And Panina had 10 children. 10 children.

And she used every single one of them as a way to torment and persecute Hannah, ridicule her, make her feel worthless because she couldn’t have a child. And her husband couldn’t understand it because he treated her so well and loved her so much. And he said, am I not better to you than 10 sons? He couldn’t understand where she was at. He couldn’t understand the ridicule that she felt. He couldn’t understand the loneliness and the barrenness

of the issue because he had children, even though they were by Panina. And he couldn’t understand her struggle, her very personal struggle.

Jaime Luce (28:18.83)
Ten children. It’s a lot of years to watch somebody else have children, one right after the other, living under the same roof and mocking you, mocking you on purpose. That’s a hard burden to bear. And yet Hannah had such a calling on her life. The timing of God was imperative in her life.

because she was going to bring forth Samuel. She didn’t know it during the waiting, but it’s always bigger than we think.

She was going to bring forth Samuel. Now Samuel, this was so important that she had to wait this amount of time because she couldn’t have Samuel until a couple things happened. One of them being she had to come to the point in her desperation that she was willing to give her son back to the Lord. Her prayer that Eli heard her pray

thinking she was drunk, because she was crying out before God. He thought she was drunk, but she was desperate in prayer. Has anybody ever mistook your emotions and not understood what you’re feeling? But Hannah had come to the place where she said, God, if you’ll give me a son, then I will give him back to you and he will serve you all of his days. She was going to give him to the service of the Lord.

That was necessary. God wasn’t going to give Hannah a child just so Hannah could keep him at home. Her son Samuel had a preordained job to do. It was all of his days, like the scripture I read you, all of his days were already written before a day of them was lived. This is all of us. This was Samuel. There was a call in his life and his mother was going to have to be in agreement with this call. So that had to happen first.

Jaime Luce (30:28.802)
That was not the only thing of timing that had to happen. Samuel had to be born in a time where he ends up taking over for the death of Eli and Eli’s sons. This was very important. Samuel was going to anoint the first king of Israel who was Saul. But even more important than that, it was Samuel’s job by God’s ordination that he would be the man.

to anoint David king over Israel, the man after God’s own heart. This timing was imperative. And yet poor Hannah had to struggle all those years, not knowing how big and important. She wouldn’t even know her whole life. She wouldn’t even live out her whole life knowing all that Samuel had, that God had for his life.

Jaime Luce (31:28.682)
Timing is so important. The waiting is not a time where God has forgotten you. The waiting season, waiting for him to show up, doesn’t mean that he’s left you or that he’s mad at you. There’s a reason, and God is good. There is a reason, my friend, and God is good.

Let Him encourage you in your spirit. There is a reason and God is good.

Jaime Luce (32:09.312)
It doesn’t end here. You can hang on to that. You can know with total assurance that the God who knit you in your mother’s womb, who has ordained all of your days, knows exactly where you are and what you’re dealing with. And he has a good plan for your life. A plan to sustain you by his grace in the middle.

and one that will ultimately bring him great glory. He is good. He is good.

Jaime Luce (32:50.028)
I want to give you the next example and then we’ll get into our passage in second Kings. But this is Jesus. Jesus’s entire life on this planet was timed down to the last second. It was timed all of it. So important every detail and so is yours. So is yours. Everything I’m giving you is to let you know. Yes for Jesus.

but also yes, for you and me. Every detail, every moment, God sees you, He cares, He loves you, He’s with you. He will get you through this to the end result that He has ordained for you. You are not alone.

Yes for Jesus, yes for you.

Jesus himself tried to help his mother understand this process and he says to her in John 2 for my hour has not yet come He knew he would speak often of my hour is not yet or At the time that he said my hour has come He knew there was a specific timing for everything that needed to happen

When they wanted to throw him off the cliff, it wasn’t his time and that wasn’t the way. That wasn’t the way he was supposed to do it.

Jaime Luce (34:20.822)
It’s just like how we talked about last week. This is not the place and this is not the man or however he said it. It’s like, this is not the time. God knows the time. God knows the time. And he knows that it’s very specific the time. Just like when he needed a cult to come down for the triumphal entry. He knew that that cult would be tied right in that specific place that he needed it because it was the weak.

of this passion. This all had to be done a certain way. Everything had to be at a time. was the timing. Think of the man at the pool of Bethesda. He had been there for years and years and years and years, like 40 years I think it was. And here Jesus comes. And that was the time. That was the time. The paralytic man. How long was he a paralytic? Before the day that Jesus comes to the house and his four friends drop him through the roof.

A timing. Timing is everything.

Jaime Luce (35:26.306)
Jesus also tried to explain this to his disciples that his timing and the things that needed to take place were specifically necessary and planned. Luke 24, 44 says, all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. He’s saying I need every single thing done that was spoken of of me.

and all of it has to be done in a certain timing while I am here to do all of these things. This occurred after his resurrection emphasizing that his suffering and resurrection fulfilled scripture.

your trial, your crucifixion, and your resurrection, new life, new beginning, whatever.

All of that is in the timing of God and it’s necessary. He will not allow you to go through things unnecessarily. If you’re asking for His guidance, if you are following His instructions, you do not have to fear that you are unnecessarily going through something. The trouble we get into is when we don’t go to God and we don’t ask

and we take matters into our own hands and create circumstances that God did not plan for us, then we need his deliverance. And there might be some things that need to happen to get us out of that. There might be some timings that need to go with that, but we can’t blame God for that. That’s our doing. have to hold ourselves accountable for the choices we have made if they have been outside of the plan and the will of God. That’s just what we have to deal with.

Jaime Luce (37:26.69)
But if you are walking in accordance to God’s word, if you are asking for His direction, He will lead you. And you do not have to fear along the way. He can comfort you when you’re in your boat crossing to the other side and a storm comes up and you think you’re going to die.

And he can say to his disciples, ye of little faith, he knew he planned on taking them right where he said he would, that no flood is going to stop the promise of God from taking place.

Jaime Luce (38:05.016)
This timing that Jesus lived and spoke to his disciples about was necessary and crucial for God’s plan, both in the life of Jesus and in the lives of all of his creation. That includes you and I. So if we can see it clearly in the lives of those we find in scripture, then we can take that and use that, let that serve

as a testimony to help us build up our faith and our trust in Jesus.

Let it be a tool that we use to help us remain in peace while we walk through our storm. That we can be like Peter and for a time at least, if not the whole time, walk with Jesus on the water. You know, we tend to think of pictures of Peter walking on the water and it’s almost like we think it’s like pool water.

These were stormy seas with great waves and they were walking on the water. Now at the point that Peter began to sink, he only began to sink because his eyes came off of Jesus. Only because his eyes came off. Let your endeavor be to keep your eyes fully focused on Jesus. He will sustain you. He will keep you in

perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. Okay. God has and is executing a great plan for your life and on our behalf, but most importantly, for His great glory. His great glory. Okay.

Jaime Luce (40:07.286)
Our last example today is our text and I want us to go to 2 Kings 8, 1 through 6, just six verses. I will read them to you and we’ll just go through these.

chapter eight, second Kings chapter eight, verse one. Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life. You remember this? We went over this several weeks ago. This is the woman who Elisha had prophesied she would have. And then this son dies and Elisha is the one who comes and restores him to life. So then Elisha spoke to the woman. She’s the Shunammite woman.

whose son he had restored to life saying, arise, okay, this is what he’s telling her, this is a new commandment, he’s come to her and he is giving her this commandment, arise and go, you and your household and stay wherever you can. Do you hear the urgency? Do you hear the, he’s bringing that there’s bad news, he’s bringing news that is troubling, he’s bringing news that is scary.

Okay. And he’s saying you get out of here and go wherever you can take your family, your whole household and go wherever you can for the Lord has called for a famine. And furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years. So there’s a lot right here because he’s saying, I want you to go take everybody that matters to you. You know, this is the, there’s a scripture that says that

God does nothing that he doesn’t tell his prophets first. So God is doing according to his word. He’s letting Elisha know, I have a timed famine that’s coming. This famine is going to last for seven years. It is a span of time that is long enough that you have to go make a home somewhere else for a little while.

Jaime Luce (42:14.306)
This is gonna interrupt your life for a little while. This isn’t a day, this isn’t a month, this isn’t a year, this isn’t five years, this is seven years long. Okay, this isn’t an easy trial. It’s gonna be dangerous here, but wasn’t God good to forewarn and give instruction so that she is not affected

the way she should be if she stayed in the land.

This is a woman who made God and God’s servants a priority. This is a woman who built a place in her home just so that if the prophet happened to be going by, he could come in and rest in her home. She would feed him, she would let him sleep there, she would give him or bring to him whatever he needed. She was a provider for his needs. Whenever he came through, she wanted to be the one to help him.

This is a woman who believes in God, sought God. When her son died, she paid no mind to anyone but the man of God. And she refused to hear an answer by anyone but the man of God. This is a godly woman. If we want to take some examples of how we want to emulate in our life, you make room for God in your home. You make room for God in your home.

that this is no, there’s no room in the inn for you here. We make room for God. We make a table, we have a bed, we eat together, our lives are built around God. He has a place in this house, a permanent residential place in our home. This is a good…

Jaime Luce (44:15.328)
A really good example of a woman who has made God her priority, someone who was sold out to the Lord. This is how they live. And look how God treats her in kind. This prophet who has been so well cared for comes to give her specifically some serious news ahead of time so that she has time to make preparation and not be completely overwhelmed by what’s coming.

Have you ever just known something and just felt that God was leading in a certain direction and you didn’t understand it, but you obeyed him and you realized it saved you. could have been so much worse. You know, we, we tend to, use as an example, sometimes that, you know,

We grumble and complain because we’re late and we didn’t get on the freeway at the right time. And then we find out later that there was an accident on the freeway and then we can take comfort then Lord, you probably didn’t allow me to get, I was mad about all this and that and the other because it was making me late. And yet you were using that very thing to, to preserve me that I not get caught in this other mess. It could have been so much worse right now. I’m only late. I could have been injured. Someone could have died. I mean, it could be so much worse.

So that’s the situation here. She has to move, her life is interrupted, she is affected by this, but it could have been so much worse. And it’s timed. I almost called today, your trial has a time limit, because this is kind of what I see in her life. Your trial has a time limit. We get messed up in the time, but it has a time limit.

Verse two, so the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God. So it wasn’t just that she heard God, she had to immediately get to work. This is hard work packing up a household. This is not easy. Not even knowing where to go. He didn’t even give her an instruction like go to this particular place. He just said, wherever you can. You’re gonna have to go find wherever you can. This left a burden for her to carry. Do you understand? Her whole household.

Jaime Luce (46:37.44)
And we don’t know at this point in time, there’s no mention of her husband after the birth of her son. So we don’t even know if she is a widow at this point or if her husband is elderly, which we already knew he was older. We already knew by scripture he was older already at the time that her son was born. So he may not be able to do all these things. The burden might be falling on her, but she is the one being told. So it’s definitely her burden in that respect.

that she has to pack up this whole household and go find some place for them to live. All their servants, all their livestock, everything. This was not just, okay, pack a suitcase, we’re gonna be gone for seven years. Pack up your life and find wherever you can and hurry because God has ordered a famine. You’re gonna wanna be established so you have food. Don’t take these plans lightly.

And timing is so important folks that when you hear the word of God, when you hear instructions, you need to, you need to obey quickly. Now, if he tells you something and doesn’t give you the timing and you’re waiting on the Lord to show you the time and to, to, confirm the timing, that’s okay. But when he gives you a time, you need to obey. You can’t drag your feet on this. It’s imperative that we do for the outcome that God is wanting.

for the provision that he is making for us, we need to be careful to obey and obey quickly. So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines. I mean, doesn’t feel like a safe place, definitely not a comfort zone. These people…

worshiped Dagon and other gods and this was not a place she wanted to be. This was definitely an interruption in her life, but there wasn’t famine there and she was going to be able to be sustained. So you can know that if you are driven to deal with something and you have prayed and sought the Lord, then you can know that God will make sure that the provisions

Jaime Luce (48:55.466)
are in with you in that in uncomfortable, scary time, wherever that is, you can trust in the provision of God. Cause he didn’t, the prophet didn’t give her restrictions on where to go. He said, wherever you can, wherever you can, wherever she can find land, that’s big enough to house every, she was a wealthy woman to house everything that she had.

This was important for her to be able to find a place and there God didn’t put a restriction on that. It’s like you could be saying, Lord, my car just keeps breaking down and I just don’t have the money to keep doing this. What I really need is a new car and I need your help. need you to show me what I can afford. I need to, what will you make provision for? And God might tell you, okay, you might have a knowing in your heart. You can really only afford to spend this much. This is what you’re going to have provision for.

God’s not telling you to run out and buy the most expensive car just because you’re going to get a new car. What are you making allowance for God? What are you leading in this? And then he might say, now pick whatever color you want, whatever model you want. I don’t care what kind of car you want, but this is the provision. Okay. There’s freedom in our provision, but there’s provision. We just have to know that we’re following the instruction of the Lord.

verse 3. It came to pass at the end of seven years. So she’s come to the end of the seven years and she has lived this time by total faith in the word of God by the man of God. It came to pass at the end of seven years that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house

for her land So she knows she left that property she left it meaning the king or whoever could come in and Take that house and use that house and use that land because it was left. It was abandoned But that’s her house and that’s her land That’s her inheritance Israel’s land was their inheritance that they would pass on and so she’s concerned

Jaime Luce (51:24.236)
because she obeyed God and they survived and the seven years is over. And now she’s coming back and she’s going to go petition the king and say, that’s my land. That’s my house. I’m asking you to give it back to me. I’m asking you to restore to me what was lost.

Jaime Luce (51:48.152)
The Lord will restore to you. Just like what we read in Joel chapter two. What the kangaroo worm, what the palmer worm, what all the worms have eaten and the locusts have eaten.

He will restore. He will restore.

Now let’s look, verse four. Then, so at the same time that she’s coming to meet the king, then the king talked with Gehazi. Well, Gehazi had been the servant of Elisha. And then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, tell me please all the great things Elisha has done. Now you have to know how God this actually is.

What a miracle this actually is. Not just the fact that Gehazi happens to be standing and talking to the king. That in itself is quite something. But the king hated Elisha. He always blamed Elisha. Elisha hated this king. This is Ahab’s son. He hated this man. I know hate’s a strong word, but he did not like him.

and he would tell it to him to his face. He would always make sure that Israel, he wouldn’t allow that disdain that he had, stop him, Elisha would not allow that disdain, to stop him from performing God’s goodness to Israel by using and speaking to the king. But this king didn’t serve God. He was not faithful to God.

Jaime Luce (53:37.228)
So it’s a miracle that he is curious. It’s God’s doing, but it’s a miracle that he’s even curious and thinking, Hmm, you know, okay, Hasi, tell me about all the amazing things that Elisha has done, because that’s, is attributing nice thoughts. That’s attributing, you know, good favor.

to want to hear all the amazing things that this man has done, who you seem to think is your nemesis and who brings evil on you and punishment on you whenever you do wrong. Instead, he never thinks it’s his own doing, that he’s not looking to God, but he always thinks it’s Elisha’s fault. And this man, this king, who is not a righteous king, is suddenly curious to hear about the amazing things that he has done.

Verse five. Now it happened as he was telling the king, right at the same time that Gehazi is telling the king how he had restored, how Elisha had restored the dead to life, speaking of the boy, that there was a woman whose son he restored to life.

And here she is. says, now what happened as he was telling the King how he restored the dead to life that they’re standing right there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the King for her house and for her land. And Gahazai says, my Lord, King, this is the woman. That’s her right there. That’s the one.

she’s the lady. She’s the one that Elisha restored her son to life. And this is her son. She brought her son with her and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. he’s like, is this true? Did this really happen? And she tells him the story.

Jaime Luce (55:57.494)
So the king appointed a certain officer for her saying, restore all that was hers and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.

Her trial had a time limit.

She would not be in this circumstance forever. No one is in that circumstance forever.

We see out of the examples I gave you, they had time. There were years. Bad things happened, but that wasn’t the end of the story. And it’s not the end of your story.

Today I just wanted to endeavor to infuse your heart with faith and courage, tell you to be of good cheer, do not be afraid. God is not a liar. God is not slow, as some would say. God is not late. God has not denied you.

Jaime Luce (57:28.482)
There is a timing. There is a period of a trial. Even in the legal sense, in our natural legal system, when you go through a trial, there are different things that happen during the trial. There is a series of events that happen during the trial. We call it a trial for a reason. Until we get to the end of the trial.

And thank God, Jesus is right now making intercession for us. God is the judge and scripture tells us, will not the judge of the whole earth do right? Yes, yes he will. Yes he will.

This God whom we serve, who knit you in your mother’s womb, who has ordained all of your days, numbered all of those days, this God has a plan for your life. And he never forsakes the work of his hands. Don’t jump out of his hand. Don’t take matters into your own hands. Just know you are safe.

and he will provide for you. He will carry you to the other side. He will see you through. Let that assurance bring you peace.

Keep your eyes on Jesus and he will sustain you to the end. Let me pray for you.

Jaime Luce (59:19.928)
Father, we are so grateful for your word, for the examples that you have given to us over the years and years and years, over the time span of, I think, 1,500 years that the book was written, that all of these stories that were compiled, we can see your nature, how it is continually the same, how you, the Lord God, change not. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can count.

On your goodness, we can count and rely on your ability to care for us, that you so love us, that you give us the example that if you clothe the lilies of the field and you feed the birds of the air, how much more do you care and provide for us? You have not forgotten us. You have not walked away and abandoned us.

You have promised that you are nearer than a brother. Father, you are as close as the mention of your name. So today we cast our eyes on you and we trust you that you are with us, present with us, working out your plan that we are safe with you.

You are the good shepherd. Your rod and your staff, they comfort us. You will lead us in paths of righteousness. You will lead us beside still waters. You will cause us to lay down in green pastures. You will make sure that our cup runs over. We don’t have to fear the enemy around us, for you will prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

You’ve promised that your goodness and your mercy will most assuredly follow us all the days of our lives.

Jaime Luce (01:01:28.002)
that the promise is we can dwell in your house forever. Lord, I thank you for every promise. I thank you that you are not a man that you could lie. I thank you that you do not shift and change the shadows. That you will do what you have said you would do and you will make sure that your promise comes to pass. We give you all the praise and all the glory.

We trust in a God who is perfect. Bless your people today. Encourage your people today. Strengthen your people today. Abundantly pour out your grace today. And we will be so careful to come back and say thank you and give you the glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

I do hope that you will endeavor to be in the Word. Let the Word feed you, feast on this Word. Let it be your encouragement. Let it be your strength. If this message was a blessing to you, an encouragement to you, you would be an encouragement to me if you would share this message with someone who might need to hear it. If you haven’t yet done so, you can subscribe to this channel by ringing the bell.

get notified whenever a new message is available for you. We try to do those every week, but that way you can know if you’ve missed any, we’ll make sure you know. And if you happen to have the time, we would love to hear from you. You could rate, give us a rating. That would greatly help us if you listen to this on podcast. If you’re watching this on YouTube, give us a like. And if you want to give me any of your praise reports, I’d love to hear them. You want to share with me your

prayer request, I’d love to pray with you. can go to my website or you can send me an email. The email address is mail at Jaimeloose.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks so much for spending time with me today and we will see you next time. Bye bye.