Shut The Door
Download MP3Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine encouragement. This is Joy in Every Step with your host, beloved preacher, retired teacher, and faithful faithful servant of the Lord, Sarita Bernadette. Each week, Sarita shares heartfelt messages rooted in the word of God, filled with wisdom, joy, and the gentle reminder that God cares deeply for you. Whether you're walking through the valleys or dancing on the mountaintops, Sarita's voice will guide you back to his promises step by step. So open your heart, settle your spirit, and take the next step in faith with Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette:Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, and welcome back to another episode of Joy in Every Step. I'm glad you're here. At the end of the previous episode, it was clear that we needed to continue on the topic of being careful about how we respond when faced with challenges. I'll repeat what was said last time to refresh our memories but before I do, to be honest I was a little uncomfortable spitting the words out.
Sarita Bernadette:As a former kindergarten teacher I often fielded complaints from my young students about the words shut up being used. However, this is a different space and time and apparently in this context the advice resonated with some listeners. So here goes: Watch what you say when what you see doesn't look good. It's best to just keep quiet. Yes, shut your mouth.
Sarita Bernadette:If you find that you can't pull up a scripture or say a prayer, just keep quiet. One's confession in difficult times has a direct effect on one's situation. Remember Proverbs eighteen twenty one, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. Therefore, Psalm 140 one:three, Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips.
Sarita Bernadette:Friends, our mouths can open the door to things we don't want. Additionally, when navigating the issues of life consider these two points: one. It's important to be careful about who and what we listen to as we work through tough times. And two, resolution often comes in the quiet moments we spend listening to God and following his directions. Of Elisha and the widow in second Kings is one that seems to come back to me over and over again and each time God reveals just a little more from it.
Sarita Bernadette:So second Kings four:one-seven Elisha helps a widow. 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. What can I do to help you? Elisha asked.
Sarita Bernadette:Tell me what do you have in the house? Nothing at all except a flask of oil she replied and Elisha said borrow as many empty jars as you can find from your friends and neighbors 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. So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her and she filled one after another.
Sarita Bernadette:Soon every container was full to the brim. Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons. There aren't any more, he told her, and then the oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God what had happened he said to her, Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts and you and your sons can live on what is left over. Many of us are familiar with this story and we probably have a good grip on the main lesson.
Sarita Bernadette:The one that jumps right out is to have faith, right? To trust God. This widow only had one small jar of olive oil yet she was instructed to pour it out. So one thing we understand is that we shouldn't be tempted to hold on to something because we can't see where the next supply will come from. God's math is just different.
Sarita Bernadette:The term sovereign mathematician came to mind. We know he will multiply what we offer up when we put our trust in him. God, through Elisha, provided the miracle of oil so the widow could pay off her debts and not lose her children to the creditor. In the end there was enough oil for the widow and her whole family to live. Beloved, not only did they have enough but they had surplus.
Sarita Bernadette:Surplus! An amount of something that remains after what's necessary has been consumed or accounted for. It's an excess of assets or resources beyond one's own needs overflow. She had to offer up what she had in order to get the fullness of what God had for her. The little oil she had would have soon run out but that little offered as seed became much in the hands of God.
Sarita Bernadette:So let's zero in on the a clause or the first part of verse four. This is second Kings four: Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Then go into your house, he says, with your sons and shut the door behind you. Elisha gives her direct and very explicit instructions here. There's no room for confusion.
Sarita Bernadette:When God speaks he doesn't always tell you everything at once and it may not make sense in the moment but if you follow the explicit instructions he'll lead you to the solution to your problem Matthew six:six But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father who sees everything will reward you. The instructions to the widow were again take your sons into the house and shut the door. Why shut the door? Shut the door on all the noise you don't need to hear.
Sarita Bernadette:Shut out the chatter of the neighborhood. One can only imagine the conversations that were going on in that community about her situation you know poor unfortunate soul how sad her husband served the Lord now he's dead and she's left to fend for herself and her children. I don't know how she's gonna make it. How in the world will she pay her bills? Someone should help her.
Sarita Bernadette:Chatter. Chatter she did not need to hear. So first thing shut the door to the outside chatter beloved God wants us to be strategic about who we allow into our space we have people around us who might mean well but what's coming out of their hearts and their minds and ultimately out of their mouths does not always line up with the word of God and it is not always of benefit to us. What if she had listened to their chatter after getting her marching orders and started meditating on it and repeating it to herself and her sons? Remember what she told Elisha when she cried out to him?
Sarita Bernadette:But now a creditor has come threatening to take my sons as slaves. She was obviously upset. Had she already said some negative things? Perhaps. We don't know.
Sarita Bernadette:I will say this: God knows when to instruct us to shut up. There are times when we need to do that, beloved. We must be careful not only about what comes through in through our ears but also what comes out of our mouths. Chatter. Yep, our own chatter.
Sarita Bernadette:The message version of Proverbs eighteen twenty one reads, Words kill, words give life. They're either poison or fruit you choose, my Lord. The Passion translation reads, Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life and the talkative person will reap the consequences. Now beloved, we know that a consequence is the result or effect of an action or condition and it can be listen either positive or negative. So beloved we have the power to influence what happens to us we do.
Sarita Bernadette:So number two shut the door to the inside chatter yeah your own next shut the door to the distractions when we're in a crisis when we're confronted with a situation that looks grim the enemy loves to introduce other things that have nothing to do with the situation they have nothing to do with the solution that we're looking for imagine the distractions that could have pulled this woman's attention away from the instructions she had been given. Number one being, what will the neighbors think? What are other people going to think about what I'm doing? If I do what the Lord is telling me to do right now, folk will think I'm strange. They'll think I've lost my mind.
Sarita Bernadette:Why do we continue to care what other people think? Why do we seek their approval? God's opinion is the only one that really matters. Hebrews eleven:six You can never please God without faith without depending on him anyone who wants to come to God must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely look for him Your faith in him is what matters beloved. He rewards those who look for him so shut the door and look for him.
Sarita Bernadette:Shut the door to those outside distractions. Last one here is to shut the door to the past shut the door to the past there's a story in the fifth chapter of mark where Jesus heals a man who's possessed with an unclean spirit It's in Mark five verses one through 20, fairly long passage of scripture. Feel free to read it in its entirety there. But briefly, this man had been living or dwelling among the tombs, crying and cutting himself day and night. What continues to resonate with me is the fact that just about everything in a graveyard is dead.
Sarita Bernadette:The graveyard holds the past and we have no business living in a place like that. There is no life in a graveyard. When we constantly ruminate on or revisit the past, we are hanging around the tombstones. The only thing alive in there is perhaps some flowers that somebody's come and left for, left on a tombstone, but everything else is dead. Wouldn't you agree?
Sarita Bernadette:This man in the scripture reference was a tortured soul. The demons were making him miserable. For some of us, the past, our past is torturing us. The enemy will use it to try to pull our focus and either make us feel guilty about the things we've done or the things that were done to us. He may even try to distract us with memories of our glory days.
Sarita Bernadette:Maybe it's the good times that that tend to distract you you're you're thinking about those well news bulletin it's all dead stuff good bad all dead stuff rather it's it's over beloved it's gone even those good memories can hold you in bondage if you're not careful it's all behind us and God said I know the plans I have for you the plans that's the future God has your future in his sights Paul talked about breaking with the past in the third chapter of Philippians verses 13 through 14. He said, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus The only way to be free of the past, free of the old memories, is to allow the Lord to do what only he can do. Remember John eight thirty six, So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. The Message version says, So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.
Sarita Bernadette:So yeah, shut the door to the chatter, the distractions, and the past. Beloved there is joy in knowing how creating a sacred space for God allows for undisturbed communion with him there we have access to his instructions crafted exclusively for us. You've been listening to Joy in Every Step. I'm Sarita Bernadette and I'm so grateful you chose to spend some time here with me. Feel free to share this episode with someone you know would appreciate it.
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