Take Your Shot – What Do We Learn About the Shot?

Pastor Brian K. Brown, St. Mark M.B. Church

II Kings 13:14-19

In this text Elisha, prophet of God, is near death but even though Elisha was going to die he wanted to live for God until the day he died.  He didn’t spend his last days feeling sorry for himself but continued to be a profit, God’s mouthpiece, and ambassador.  Joash was a king who didn’t follow God.  Yet we see that God doesn’t hold grudges.

If we turn our hearts to God in spite of what we’ve done, he will turn in our direction and favor our life so that we are a success for God’s kingdom.  Joash shows up with a spirit of remorse and repentance, Elisha sees it and says he can help the king.  In order for Israel to be well it had to take a shot and we too must take a shot.  On one side the shot is a vaccination but it’s not enough for us to overcome the COVID crisis, there’s another shot or chance that’s knocking at our doors, an opportunity for us to take a shot that can make our lives better and we can be better for the people around us in our neighborhood, city, state, nation, and the world.

Pastor Brown appealed to us to recognize that it’s our turn to take our shot, not only from a real-time moment in the COVID crisis but on the other side to those who have taken our vaccination shot to take another shot as this is our opportunity for the dreams we have and to go and be what we never thought could become a reality.  We’ve made mistakes, not done right but God has given us another day and opportunity and reminds us that what we do in this opportunity will advance or stagnate us.  It depends on what we do with our shot.

The question posed by Pastor Brown was ‘what do we learn about the shot from the text?  From verses 15-17 – ‘It is a shot of faith’.  In this text, Elisha tells King Joash to get a bow and some arrows.  He then instructs him to put an arrow in the bow, Elisha places his hand over the king’s hand.  He tells the king to open the window eastward and let the arrow go.

As it flew Elisha let’s Joash know that the arrow is an arrow of deliverance, an arrow against the Syrians and an arrow of victory.  It’s not an arrow that will kill any Syrians but penetrates the fears in the world and infiltrate faith in what was a fearful area.  For those who do not want to take the shot, you need to see that everything we do should be done in faith.  Our act of faith is our ability to take a shot believing it’s not the shot that will cure or heal, keep, or protect, but our faith that God is over everything and God will not fail us.

The vaccine may not be a serum for COVID 19 but an act of faith that you will believe God and declare that you take the shot as an outward show of faith in God because we believe God can heal us. Are we denying God the opportunity to bring deliverance because we are questioning God’s mode of deliverance?