Cold, Hard Facts?

“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

II Kings 6:15-17

Sometimes our senses can reveal cold hard facts.

In our passage today the cold hard facts were revealed to the servant by what he saw with his natural eyes and this is what those facts told him:

A strong, well-equipped army that vastly out-numbered them had them surrounded. There was nothing warm and fuzzy about those facts, they were cold.

They were also hard.

They were hard to digest, hard to fathom, and hard to imagine a way out.

Here’s the reality, though, for a believer. When cold, hard facts come up against the truth of God, His truth is the only reality that matters.

You need only read the rest of II Kings 6 to understand the truth of that statement.

What is the difference?

The difference was which eyes were seeing. The natural eyes told of a very frightening outcome. But the eyes opened by the Spirit of God to see the truth had a much different ending planned. Your natural eyes and ears can see and hear some pretty frightening facts in the course of twenty-four hours. Maybe your last twenty-four have been like that. Ask God to help you see and hear those same twenty-four hours through the eyes and ears of His spirit. Ask Him to open your eyes and ears to His truth.

See if you don’t grasp things differently when He does.

As Jesus liked to say:

“He who has an ear; let him hear…”