The God Pause from The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Monday, 23 July 2018 - 2 Kings 4:42-44

The God Pause from The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Monday, 23 July 2018 - 2 Kings 4:42-442 Kings 4:42 A man came from Ba‘al-Shalishah bringing the man of God twenty loaves of bread made from the barley firstfruits and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give this to the people to eat.” 43 His servant said, “How am I to serve this to a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people to eat; for Adonai says that they will eat and have some left over.” 44 So he served them, and they ate and had some left over, as Adonai had said. (Complete Jewish Bible).
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Have you ever truly trusted that God is enough? I mean, seriously. Not just in saying, "Yes, I believe that God is enough," but in really trusting and living in a way that allows God to fill the gap. I like to think that I do on a regular basis but I fear most of the time my vision of God is marked by images of scarcity rather than abundance. This is true even though time and again when I truly allow myself to need God to fill the gap, God does. God never fails. In the reading from 2 Kings we see that tension played out--a servant hesitant to trust God's ability to deliver on a promise and the prophet Elisha knowing in his core that God will come through. As the story goes, God delivers in a way that can only be described as a divine miracle. But we should know better. Miracle? Not so much. This is God doing God's thing--again and again faithfully giving us all that we need even when we can't seem to fathom the possibility. Yes, God is enough. Do you believe that? Really?
God of abundance, meet us where we are and stir us out of our own need to control and dictate the way things go. Remind us, this day, that you are indeed enough and we shall never want. For you are God and we are not. Amen.

Justin A. Grimm '05

Director for Evangelical Mission

Assistant to the Bishop for Next Generation Ministries, St. Paul Area Synod, ELCA

St. Paul, Minn. 

2 Kings 4:Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men
42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44 He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. (New Revised Standard Version).
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