February 8, 2026
Do you lose things often? Two weeks ago, I was running errands in Tamaqua before that big snow. I went to post office to mail letters. Oops, I notice I forgot to put stamps on them. So, I went in and bought stamps, now I can mail those letters. I did that. I went to the hardware store. When I went to pay: and realized, I don’t have my wallet! I look all over in my purse and in the car, but it’s not there!
So, I go back to the post office. They have my wallet! There was a world of worry I felt between the hardware store and the post office.
It’s a big deal to lose your wallet. But there are things we lose that are a much bigger deal. Like if you lose your sense of purpose, and wonder, who am I and what am I here for? Or maybe you lose a relationship, you lost a friend over something that wasn’t important. It could be a spiritual loss: at one time you were full of joy in the Lord, but you’ve lost that joy! Or you lost your intimacy with God.
Today we’re looking at a miracle God worked through Elisha the prophet. It was not a big flashy miracle. But it demonstrates a very powerful principal that our God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose! God is good and loving and cares about you and how you’re doing! He is a God of recovery.
This is the last message in our sermon series on Elisha. The first week Elisha gets called to be a prophet. Elisha says yes to the mantle, and he burns his plow. He’s burning his bridges: he’s not going back to farming. He will serve God as a prophet! The second week there were three armies without water. So, three kings (not the Christmas ones) go to Elisha seeking God’s help. Elisha takes action: he worships to harp music, and God sends the miracle of water. Last week a widow is about to lose her sons. She doesn’t have enough. Elishah tells her to ask around for empty jars. Her little bit of oil in a jar keeps flowing and fills all the jars. She can sell the oil and keep her kids! God takes care of her and her family.
Today we’re hearing about a time Elisha works a miracle that might seem silly, more like a magic trick, than a big miracle. At that time, there was a group of prophets, and Elisha was their mentor. They are a big group, all seeking God. Which is great! It was tough to be a prophet back then. Queen Jezebel threatened to kill a previous prophet, Elijah. Even though there were death threats, there is a big company of prophets seeking God. They aren’t scared. Today, I’m encouraged by how many people are interested in God, thinking about Him, and want to go further in their spiritual journey.
The group of prophets tell Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet is too small for us.” We try to put up with this space, but it’s not working. They have so many prophets they have run out of room! They say to Elisha, “Let’s go to the river, where we can each get a pole, and build a new place that’s big enough for us to meet.” Elisha tells them, “Go.” They say, we need you to come too! Elisha says, “I will.”
So, one of the company of prophets is chopping down a tree, and the iron axe head slips off his axe and falls in the water! He says, “Oh no!” Can everybody say that after me, “Oh No!” See his godliness? Because some of you would have said…something else! But the young prophet says, “Oh no!” “It was borrowed!” So, Elisha asks, “Where did it fall?” The young man shows him. Elisha breaks a stick, throws it there, and the axe head floats to the top of the water! Elisha says, “Lift it out!” The young prophet grabs the axe head.
In his time, Elisha worked some amazing miracles! There’s the water flowing out of nowhere which saved three armies and their animals. Elisha healed Naaman of leprosy. And he raised a boy from the dead! So, with all the problems in the world, why would Elisha make an axe head float? Sometimes the smallest miracle contains the biggest message. This was back in the 9th century BC. Iron was very rare and very expensive! In fact, this story of the prophet using an axe head, this is the first time in the Bible that you hear of anyone using an iron tool!
Iron was rare and valuable, so the young prophet probably borrows the axe from a wealthy person. If you were here last Sunday, you heard that back then if you owed someone a lot, they could take your children as slaves for 4,5 or 6 years until they worked enough to pay off the debt!
So, this small thing, losing the head of an axe, could put you in a heap of trouble. It was a really big deal. This is a reminder: if it matters to you, it matters to God. Our good God cares about the details of our lives. God cared enough to make an axe head float, and God cares about your headache that won’t go away. God cares about your anxiety that feels so awful. God cares about what matters to you and wants to restore what you’ve lost.
The end of 2025 I preached a sermon, “This is My Year”, about choosing a fruit of the spirit to increase in yourself over a year’s time. The fruits of the spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I chose the fruit, joy, that I want to increase in me this year. How? I made a plan, to read the Bible more. Also On Jan. 1, God led me to sign up for Sanity School. It’s for parents of complex kids who are in school or grown. As a result of reading the Bible and attending sanity school, feel more positive, and more joy! I have a year to go, but I’m already experiencing more joy! I lost some joy, but God is good, He is helping me regain it!
I want to thank the Bible Study at Trinity. Together we’re working on our fruits and checking in on how it’s going. It helped light a fire under me. We are better together.
What have you lost that you want to restore? Maybe you lost a friendship. You got mad and said something you shouldn’t have on Facebook, which led to losing a friend. Maybe you lost your spiritual passion, your hunger for God. Maybe you lost the tone of your home, where there’s more yelling or arguing going on. There are things I would do differently with my kids if I could do it over. Maybe you’d say, I lost my way when I got into a relationship I never should have. Maybe it’s I lost my freedom when a secret habit took control. Maybe it’s I lost my peace when I held on to hurt instead of giving it to God.
The good news is God will help you restore what you didn’t mean to lose! With God’s help you can take back what you’ve lost.
Elisha and the axe head is just one of many stories in the Bible where God restores what is lost. Jesus also tells a story about a shepherd who has 100 sheep, but one sheep gets lost. The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep, to rescue the one lost sheep. Jesus is telling us, it doesn’t matter how many billions of people there are in the world, God cares about you and will help you restore what you’ve lost. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Jesus did not come for the healthy, but for the broken. He came for people like me, the lost, and hurting people. Jesus went to the cross and took our sins. He died in our place. In the resurrection, God lifted Jesus up. What was lost, God restored. An axe fell in the river, but it was lifted up!
My challenge for you this week is to ask, “What have I lost, that God wants to restore.” Think about it and pray about it. Tell God what you’ve lost and ask him to restore help you get it back.
God restores what we didn’t mean to lose. He cares about us! He cares about what we’ve lost. Once, a prophet borrowed a very expensive axe head, then lost it! But God lifted it up. Don’t listen to the enemy when he says God doesn’t care about you, or your life can’t be different. It’s never too late. You are precious to him! Take your need to God and he can help you get back what you lost. Amen.
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 