In chapter 8 from the book of 2 Kings, Elisha told the woman, who had a son who had been raised by him from the bowels of death, to go and leave with her household, for there was a famine the Lord had commanded that would last for seven long years.
Seven years later, she returned and asked the king for her land to be returned to her. The king asked his servant to recall the great deeds Elisha the prophet had done, including what he had done with the woman's son. Upon hearing from the servant about the truth behind the woman's son being restored back to life, he gave all the lands back to the woman, including all that her fields produced during the seven-year famine.
What I find interesting about this short passage was that the king didn't just assume the woman was telling the truth. This could have been someone with a devious mind who just wanted her land. Because the king trusted in his servant, who was also a man of God, to tell him the truth, he trusted what he had heard.
How many times have we assumed something to be true, maybe because a single institution or even the government put out a report on it. In August 2015, a reporter wrote an obscure article, where he found government data classifying the best and worst places to live in the United States. The reporter named the county that I'm currently living in, Red Lake County in Northwestern Minnesota, as the "ugliest" in America. He received a fair amount of heat for it and was even welcomed to visit by the members of our community. He did. He was completely blown away by the hospitality. So much so that a year later he moved his family here.
And has been here ever since.
Be mindful of the source. Do they have motives for saying what they're saying? If you want an example, look at the ongoing debate of global warming (i.e. climate change). Again, trust the source. Who benefits from it?
And remember, just because a government report says something doesn't mean it's true.
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