Perceiving Protection: When Your Fears are Surrounded
2 Kings 6:16–17 (NKJV)
So he answered, 'Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And Elisha prayed, and said, 'LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Context Behind the Verse
Physical and mental pain and fear create an acute blindness. Elisha’s servant woke up to find the entire city of Dothan surrounded by the Syrian army. Logical reality said they were trapped and doomed. His fear was completely justified. When mental distress or physical pain surrounds us, we too can only see the army of medical prognosis, the financial ruin, the crushing anxiety. Elisha, however, was calm. His confidence was not based on denying the Syrian army, but on perceiving a greater reality: those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Moving forward through pain does not require us to imagine that our difficulties are unreal. It requires us to ask God to open our eyes to the spiritual resources that surround our suffering. This story isn’t about physical deliverance but spiritual insight. We move forward when we perceive that the mountain of our pain is also God’s mountain, filled with his active, vast, and protective presence.
Prayer for the Day
Father, we confess that when our pain or our fears surround us, we can see nothing else. We are like the terrified servant, blinded by the enemy. Please, open our eyes today to the spiritual reality that surrounds us. Help us to perceive Your active presence and the vastness of Your resources, that we may move forward with courage, even when the logic of our circumstances says otherwise. Amen.
Inspirational Quote
For where the Lord is present, the presence of the enemies is brought to nought; but where He is absent, the very memory of them is a terror.
Athanasius of Alexandria