15 of 52 Voices April 22nd, 2014
The C3 Leaders devotion is a peer weekly reflection from business leaders related to their journey with Christ. Each weekly devotion will be written by a different author from among the C3 Leaders community, 52 unique authors to be exact.
As we go through this next year together, we pray that these words and reflections will encourage you in your relationship with Jesus Christ
Dr. Denise Daniels is the Associate Dean at the Seattle Pacific University School of Business and Economics
Some of my favorite Old Testament stories revolve around the lives of Elijah and his protégé, Elisha. Again and again God performs amazing miracles through these prophets. I think that one of the reasons God was able to use them so effectively is because they both recognized that God’s power is most often demonstrated through the actions and work of God’s people. Let me share two examples that show what I mean, but recognize that the principle is the same across almost all of the miracles of these two men.
In I Kings 17:17-24, Elijah is staying with the widow of Zarephath. There is a drought in the land, and Elijah has provided food for her and her family. But later the widow’s only son gets very sick and finally dies. The mother is obviously distraught and asks Elijah, “What do you have against me?” In response, Elijah takes the boy to an upstairs room “stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, ‘Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!'” And God raises the boy from the dead.
In II Kings 4:8-37, we see a similar story. Here, a miracle child is born to an infertile couple. But when the boy is still small, he gets sick and dies in the space of one day. His mother goes to Elisha, presumably to ask for a miracle, but she expresses her anger in the process: “You got my hopes up and promised me a child. And now he is dead. I’d rather never have had him.” Elisha goes into the child alone and does two things. First, he prays to the Lord. Second, he stretches his own body over the boy’s, “mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.” As he does this, the boy’s body becomes warm, and he finally sneezes seven times, and opens his eyes.
In both cases, God performs the miracle and brings these boys back to life. But Elijah and Elisha are integrally involved in the process. Each of them calls out to God and requests the miracle. Each of them lays himself out over the boy. I wonder – if it hadn’t been for Elijah or Elisha’s actions, would these boys have been raised back to life? It seems very clear that God’s power works through the actions of God’s people.
I really don’t understand why God chooses to work through flawed humans, but he does. This means that in the workplace we need to be open to partnering with God in accomplishing God’s purposes. Part of our calling is showing up and doing our best work in our jobs every day. We need to work hard at developing and/or restoring relationships with others. Anything we do to bring order out of chaos is working with God in the process of redeeming. Like Elijah and Elisha, we should work in such a way that our workplace activity becomes a conduit for God’s power.
Dr. Denise Daniels