Double or Nothing                                                       Feb. 8, 2005

"Ask what I shall do for thee…And Elisha said…a double portion…And he [Elijah] said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if…it shall be so unto thee." When asking hard things from God, the question of receiving them is on us not on Him. Speaking of God, Jeremiah tells us, "…there is nothing too hard for thee."

The "if'" is on us, not God. Jesus taught this to the father who brought his needy son to Him. The distraught father said, "…if thou canst do anything…" But Jesus placed the little two-letter word back on the father, by saying, "If thou canst believe…" It is not if God can do, but if we can believe.

Elisha had one, top priority; and, not only was this request hard, but he made it doubly so by asking for a "double portion." When we mean business with God, God will mean business with us. Three times Elisha was told to "tarry," and three times, his reply was, "I will not…" Dogged perseverance always gets the hard things in life.