Finding God's Fingerprints All Over Your Life

Have you sensed God’s fingerprints on your life? Those unexplainable circumstances that weave who you are with where you’ve been?

We see God’s fingerprints all over the story of the Shunnamite woman. Watch the pieces unfold in 2 Kings, first in Chapter 4.

– Elisha goes to Shunem, where he meets this wealthy woman, who urges him to eat some food. Her place becomes a pitstop when he’s in the area. Fingerprint.

– He shows up so much that the woman convinces her husband to provide a small for Elisha on the roof. Fingerprint.

– When Elisha and his servant Gehazi are trying to figure out how to help her, Gehazi says she doesn’t have a son and her husband is old. So Elisha prophesies she will have a son in a year. She thinks it’s a joke. But she does conceive and has a son a year later. Fingerprint.

– But when the child was old, he complained of head pain and then died in his mother’s arms. So the Shunammite woman puts the dead child on Elisha’s bed on the roof, then shuts the door. Without telling her husband that their son had died, she seeks out Elisha. When Gehazi runs to meet her, however, she tells him, “All is well.” But when she finally gets to Elisha, she falls to his feet and grabs them. “Did I ask my lord for a son?” she asks Elisha. She hadn’t asked for a son, and there she was, filled with grief over her great loss and seemingly angry for God’s gift that was ripped from her. Elisha follows her home, lies stretched out on the dead young man, bringing him back from death to life. “Pick up your son,” he tells her. And again she falls at Elisha’s feet. Fingerprint.

– But that’s not the end of her story. Later we see (2 Kings 8) that Elisha advises her and her husband to go to the land of the Philistines because of famine in the area. Saved again. Fingerprint.

– Seven years later the woman returns back to her home (it’s likely her husband has passed away) she has to make an argument to the king to get her home and property back. Because of her friendship with Elisha, the king not only gives her the property back but appoints an official to make sure this all happens. Fingerprint.

Life is HARD, people! It zigzags. We have days when we may have a huge blessing poured on us, only to have news of tragedy a moment later. We experienced this just now with news that Craig’s mom passed away today.

What we learn, though, is that God will provide for every single need we have. We simply have to stay tuned in with a #lookingupperspective. There may be hardship such great loss or financial difficulties. But God will walk us through those circumstances and redeem our pain. His fingerprints will be smudged all over our eyeglasses as we look for his presence in our lives.

Praying for you today . . . that you sense God’s dear presence in whatever challenge you face.

Janet McHenry is a speaker and author of 24 books–six on prayer, including the bestselling PrayerWalk and her newest, The Complete Guide to the Prayers of Jesus. She would love to connect with you on social media or through her website: janetmchenry.com.