Daily Devotionals

Dead End Desperation Week 4: Monday

“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” 2 Kings 4:2

Tunnel vision is the loss of someone’s peripheral vision. A person with tunnel vision can only see straight ahead without the ability to see around them. Tunnel vision causes someone to miss all the things happening around them. If we are not careful, we can develop “tunnel vision” as we live. We can become so self-focused on what is happening in our lives that we forget to look out for the needs of other people around us. 

Elisha, whom we have been studying the past few weeks in our Bible study together, was a prophet of God who did not have tunnel vision when it came to the needs around him. In 2 Kings 4, a widow came to him one day and told him that her husband was dead and that a creditor had come and threatened to take her sons as slaves (verse 1). This was indeed a desperate situation. Elisha’s response was perfect, “What can I do to help you?” he asked (verse 2). Elisha did not feel sorry for this woman and simply offered a few words of encouragement before leaving. Instead, he wanted to help. He wanted to step into this woman’s life and help her and her sons through their difficult time. Elisha chose to look at this woman’s and her sons’ needs and do something rather than have tunnel vision. He got involved. 

What an example Elisha set for us! It is easy for us to become so caught up in our lives that we develop tunnel vision. Even when we see needs, we can forget that Scripture calls us to love our neighbors. We feel compassion, but we do not let our compassion move us to action. Friends, there is a better way! Instead of being entirely consumed by our own lives, we have to start looking at the needs of other people around us. When we do this, we lean into the calling God has given every single one of us in Philippians 2:4, “don’t look out for only your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

Moving toward action

Choose today to be on the lookout for someone in need. Then, when you see someone, ask how you can help. Use the gifts and talents God has given you to make a difference in someone else’s life today.

Going Deeper

 2 Kings 4:1-5 (NLT)

"One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”

5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another."