I was invited to share a Bible teaching about prayer for a fellow blogger, Jessie, who writes “Pray with Confidence.”

Below is an excerpt from that teaching. You can find the full teaching at Pray with Confidence.

I’m so glad the story of the Shunammite woman is included in the Bible because it reveals God’s heart for those who are desperate for God to intervene in their circumstances.  The Shunammite woman also demonstrates a course of action for our desperate prayers.

Then [the Shunammite woman] called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” … Then the mother of the child said [to Elisha] “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”  So [Elisha] arose and followed her. 

2 Kings 4:22, 30 ESV

A Little Background

Whenever Elisha visited Shunem, a city located in Israel, the woman and her husband would host him.

During one visit, Elisha asked the woman how he may bless their generosity.  Seeing that she had no son, Elisha prophesied that she would have a son about that same time the following year.

When the child had grown, he complained of a headache and ultimately died in his mother’s arms. Afterwards, she laid his body on Elisha’s bed, in the room she had prompted her husband to make for the traveling prophet.  Then she made herself ready to quickly go to the man of God.  She told no one the reason for her hasty departure.  She knew that only Elisha, the man of God, could help her and was determined to have him come to her son’s aid.

Click here for the rest of the story.