Just Keep Pounding

^{2 Kings 13:14-19 
14} Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” ¹⁵ And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows. ¹⁶ Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow,” and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands. ¹⁷ And he said, “Open the window eastward,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. And he said, “The Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.”¹⁸ And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped.¹⁹ Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”

You are probably thinking to yourself, “What could this possibly have to do with anything mother or wife related? Really, what could this have to do with anything but the King of Israel at this point?”

Well, I’ll tell you.

Yesterday I was listening to a sermon by a man named Stephen Furtick. He is a pastor in North Carolina at Elevation Church and I enjoy listening to his podcasts here. He gave some background information about this passage that allowed it to make more sense.

Back in Bible times when a nation would go to war with another nation, they would often have to fight them five or six times before they would reach a victory. So when this King only struck the ground with the Lord’s arrow of victory three times, it meant that this King would only get partial victory. This King knew that he would likely have to go to battle many more times than just three, but because he wanted to “stop short”, he would only strike down Syria three times and not come to a full victory over them.

Cool, so how does it apply to us? Well, how many times have you stopped short because something got too hard? How many times have you just gotten too tired to keep fighting for your marriage? Or too tired of the constant disciplining of your children? To tired to keep waking up in the middle of the night to console a crying baby? Or too exhausted to keep going in your ministry?

We all reach a point in our lives where we wish we could just stop where we are and remain at the level of “surviving”. Stop striving for better. Stop pressing on to reach a difficult goal. Stop fighting to the end. But we were not made to simply survive this world. We were made to overcome it. And the One who has overcome the world lives in us. He fights on our side. He gives us the strength, courage, grace and patience we need to keep moving forward. Keep praying for strength, keep pounding the ground and He will give you the blessings and the victories that you so greatly desire.