This means to humbly ask for something. As noted above, we shouldn’t demand things from God. Look at the Shunammite woman. Elisha is very thankful for how she has cared for him. He wants to reward her. She doesn’t have any family in the army, so there was no need to speak to the “captain of the host” for her. But, Elisha offered something greater. He offered to speak to the king for her! This would have been great if she’d been in some legal trouble. But, she could also have taken advantage of that for her own selfish reasons. She could have told Elisha to ask the king to put her husband in a high ranking position. (In those days, women would not be placed in such positions.) Instead, she does the right thing. She is humble.
Her line “I dwell among mine own people” may seem a little odd at first. You may think, “What does where she lives have to do with what Elisha offered?” I did when I first read that. But, what she is saying is, she is content with her position in life. She has good friends, a nice home, and so on. She understands what the Lord will later lead the author of Hebrews to write. We should be content with what the stuff we have, because God is all we need. He will never leave us nor forsake us.
There came a time, in a later chapter, when she did ask the king for help, after a major drought. She’d had to flee to find better land. He made sure that everything she had was returned to her. She got that promise because she trusted God.
We can pray, too. We should ask humbly for things for others, and for ourselves.
