Recently, I’ve found myself struggling with my prayer life. I want so badly to go deeper in my discussions with God. But it seems like when I do, I either get distracted or give up because I lack the belief that what I’m asking for will happen.

During my bible reading this week, I was blessed by 2 Kings 4 when I learned about a rich Shunammite woman who was alive during the time of Elisha. Her story is fascinating in a number of ways, but her faithful prayer greatly encouraged me.

When this woman was alive, there was a great struggle in Israel to get rid of idols and only worship God. Elisha was one of the only godly prophets, and it seems he wasn’t very popular among his peers. But the rich Shunammite woman sees him frequenting her town and creates a place for him to stay. She is actually going against her culture that has largely rejected Elisha’s authority, and has chosen to support God’s prophet. We too must go against culture today.

Obviously, she is very generous allowing him to live at her house (we all know someone who is stingy with their money), but she also displays incredible discernment for spiritual things. What I find most incredible is that she sees Elisha, a rare prophet of God, and knew he was Godly, without much reference to what that would be like.

Because of her generosity and faith, Elisha blesses her with the one thing she doesn’t have: a son. Remember she is already wealthy, so she has all she would ever want or need. But God chooses to bless her anyway. God’s blessings are so abundant to those who do good.

Things seem great for a while, but then disaster strikes. Her son dies.

She’s dreamt of having a son and now that dream is dead. But she doesn’t fall over and die with it. She believes that God gave life once, and he can do it again.

Likewise, in our own lives, he can breathe life into anything: our marriage, children, work, faith, emotions, whatever! We just need to ask specifically and persistently.

So she seeks out Elisha. As she’s getting ready to go, her husband comes to her and asks why she is going because the boy is dead. Sometimes those around us will try to deter us from doing what we believe is the right, but maybe radical, thing to do.

But her response is, “All is well.” She says this to Elisha’s servant too because she believes that God will restore her son before it even happens!

Finally, after she insists that Elisha sees her son himself, he goes with her. Ultimately, we cling to Jesus (not his servants) for healing. Like the persistent widow and the bleeding woman, our faith can heal us.

I know I’m not the only person to ever struggle with lack of faith during prayer. If you’re in the same boat as me, I pray that God would strengthen our faith and allow us to be bold in our faith and say “All is well.”