“Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." We are to live faith actively, a faith that permeates every aspect of our lives. Scripture calls us to actively acknowledge Jesus before others and we must do that by the way we speak, act, serve, worship – in all we do.
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
We are to live faith actively, a faith that permeates every aspect of our lives. Scripture calls us to actively acknowledge Jesus before others and we must do that by the way we speak, act, serve, worship – in all we do.
Jesus continues to discuss those traits we are to necessarily integrate into our lives.
He begins with warning against self-centeredness. Love is a powerful thing, and if our love focus is centered on things other than God and God’s way of life, we lose our way and our life – that gift of eternal life God offers to His faithful.
On the other hand, if our focus is God and is other centered, we find true life.
Now we could be other centered, and many people are, but the caution is that our other centeredness, our sacrificial love must start in and end in God. That is the perfect way of loving.
Our reading from Kings illustrates the way we are to live. Elisha’s encounter with Shunamite woman shows a person of faith who was other centered. Let’s look at how she lived:
She shared generously. She not only provided food, but also a place of lodging. She went above and beyond.
She offered hospitality insistently and genuinely. Scripture tells us that she pressed or urged Elisha to accept her hospitality. She accommodated Elisha’s hesitancy to accept her gift with reassurance that it was her sincere desire to provide.
She cheers on and supports those who were doing God’s work. As Jesus tells us “whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones will surely not lose his reward.” She lifted Elisha’s burdens.
She served in suffering, in her childlessness. That suffering did not turn her off to being other centered.
She gave gratitude to God first and foremost. When the son Elisha promised died, she gave thanks to God before all else.
Because of her way of life, she was given a son. When her son died, he was restored to life. When a famine was on the horizon, she was warned so she could escape it. Later, she declares all God did before the king. Let our way and course be set by Jesus’ words and her example.
