We are called to place our highest value on relationships and prioritize the health of our hearts. Jesus tells a teacher of the law that the whole law can be summed up in two commandments: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

At the point in the Scripture above, Jesus had been in ministry for three years. He is entering Jerusalem and inaugurating what we now know as Passion Week. Word had begun to spread about his miracles, and people had experienced his miracles. They had experienced the one who would come and take away the sins of the world and establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.

As a backstory to Jehoshaphat, there was King Asa. 2 Chronicles 16:9 states, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” Asa brought a curse on the land from continuous war. Then, Asa put the prophet in prison. This was the context in which Jehoshaphat became king.

The Shunammite woman desired a child, but when given the opportunity to tell the prophet Elisha what she desired, she did not ask for it. While her response demonstrates contentment, she may have been dealing with fractured faith. There is a fine line between being content in your faith and being convinced that your faith can produce more.

Sometimes, we find ourselves in a place of apathy or discontent where we take lukewarm actions. Instead of following God's instructions, we stop short. Often, this is a result of having unmet expectations. When we don't believe we're winning in a specific area of our lives, we lose our zeal and let our hearts withdraw, leaving room for apathy to grow.

Hunger is influencing our lives for better or for worse. There is a hunger hormone in our body called ghrelin. This hormone will grow or shrink based on whether we eat healthy food or unhealthy food. But for many of us, rather than letting hunger drive us to physical food, we should let our hunger drive us to God. 

Fasting is a spiritual discipline that involves doing without food for a period of time for a spiritual purpose. Fasting is about replacing a natural thing (time spent preparing food, thinking about food, etc.) with a spiritual thing (spending time with the Lord in prayer). Fasting produces spiritual fitness and crucifies the flesh. God’s people fast throughout Scripture. Fasting produces supernatural results.

According to Galatians 4:4, Jesus was born at the fullness of time, meaning He was born at the right time. Still, it didn’t feel like the right time for Mary and Joseph. Mary wasn’t ready, and Joseph was unprepared. They were traveling to their hometown for an important census. To them, the timing of Jesus’ birth felt crazy. But it’s not up for discussion if God wants to birth something in our lives. When God says it’s time, then it’s time.