Thursday Devotional - Faithful God through a Servant Girl (2/16/23)

 It’s amazing to see God miraculously provide for the needs of His people and His followers (like we have the last few weeks), but what about the enemy of His people? Does God ever miraculously provide for them?

If you know the story of Elisha and leprous Naaman, the answer is “Yes!”

I’d like to pick apart this familiar story over the next few weeks, focusing on how God used many people in small ways as part of His compassionately BIG restoration of Naaman, the foreign enemy.

II Kings 5:1-4     Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

² Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

⁴ Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

Several things stand out to me about the servant girl. She was compassionate and caring (rather than bitter and revengeful about her plight). She was bold and brave to speak up. She was confident in the God of Israel and what He could do through the prophet Elisha. She also must have been trustworthy for Naaman to even consider what she said (as a foreign and female slave).

What about you and me? Where might God want us to speak up and share even a simple truth about Him? Our Faithful God may take a simple truth we speak to be part of accomplishing a BIG plan!  

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Apprehensive Servant (2/9/23)

Was Jesus the first person recorded in the Bible to miraculously feed a large crown from a tiny bit of food? Surprisingly, no! Elisha was also used by God to miraculously multiply food.

II Kings 4:42-44 ⁴² A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

⁴³ “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.

But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” ⁴⁴ Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.

Last week we saw this large company of the prophets, that were staying with Elisha, fed by a mysterious pot of stew. This week they are generously and miraculously provided food! God faithfully and compassionately provided for the needs of His followers.

I was apprehensive about how to handle numerous activities this week with sick kids. However, God faithfully and timely answered my prayers for discernment and direction!

How about for you? How has God faithfully provided for your needs this week?

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Pot of Death (2/2/23)

Have you ever made a big mistake by forging ahead without asking appropriate questions or following the directions?

With one of our kids, we keep hounding the importance of reading school assignments carefully! He jumps ahead with working a problem or writing an answer without reading the instructions. He ends up making big mistakes over and over. I get quite frustrated (especially since it is so opposite my personality). I keep praying for guidance and help and direction, but I still worry. The following passage reminded me that I can trust our Faithful God with the purposes He has for our son. We can rely on God (without worry) as we continue to diligently train.

God doesn’t always spare us from the consequences of our foolish ignorance, but he did with one prophet’s cooking mistake!!!

II Kings 4:38-41  Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”

³⁹ One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. ⁴⁰ The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

God graciously intervened! He miraculously used the flour to negate the poison from the wild gourds. He spared this group of prophets!

When has God graciously spared you from the consequences of a foolish mistake?

He doesn’t always step in to save us from our foolishness. He is faithful, though, to work His purposes through any situation.

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Dead Boy (1/26/23)

Have you ever taken something impossible to God and He worked a miracle? That’s what happened to the Shunammite woman for the second time!!! She already experienced the miracle of life by getting pregnant and having a son. Then, she experienced the miracle of life all over again!!!

II Kings 4:18-21, 27-28, and 32-37 ¹⁷ But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head! My head!”

His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out…

²⁷ When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”

²⁸ “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

³² When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. ³³ He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. ³⁵ Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶ Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” ³⁷ She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.

God doesn’t often bring people back to life, but He does continuously work miracles, whether big or small! He knows our situations way before we do and already has a plan in place. What impossible situation will you and I lay before Him today and look for His solutions?

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Infertile Woman (1/19/23)

Have you ever done something generous, truly expecting nothing in return, and then received a blessing far greater than you could ever imagine?

That’s what happened to this Shunammite woman.

II Kings 4:8-17 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. ⁹ She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. ¹⁰ Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

¹¹ One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. ¹² He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. ¹³ Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”

She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

¹⁴ “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.

Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”

“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

¹⁷ But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

Our Faithful God saw this woman’s humble, generous and content heart. Elisha experienced it, too! I love how the woman showed true contentment by not even mentioning anything she needed or wanted when Elisha asked her.  

Where can you and I humbly and generously serve others from an attitude of contentment? Our Faithful God has and will provide what He knows we need!

Thursday Devotional - Faithful God versus Frantic Widow (1/12/23)

Have you ever been in a difficult situation where you tried everything and nothing worked to resolve the situation? What did you do once you exhausted your ideas?

II Kings 4:1-7 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”

“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”

But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

I love how God, through Elisha, included the widow and her two sons in the solution! They participated and then enjoyed a greater blessing watching the miracle unfold!

When you and I pray for a need, do we ask God to just snap His finger and fix it, or do we ask how He wants to use us in the solution? How will you and I take our frantic requests to our Faithful God, looking for ways He might use us in the solution?

Alice

Happy Humbly Hustling for Him in 2023! (1/5/23)

I stumbled upon this familiar verse when I was studying the book of Micah this past week:

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

In context, it isn’t quite so glamorous!

Micah 6:6-9        With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

⁹ Listen! The Lord is calling to the city—
    and to fear your name is wisdom—
    “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.

God, through Micah, had painted a dark future for Israel because of their consistent wickedness and rebellion against God. If they thought they could “pay” for their wickedness with thousands of sacrifices, that wasn’t going to work. God had given them clear instructions about how to live a life pleasing to Him. I think this is saying that now, they were to accept the consequences (“rod”) and learn from them. God’s greatest desire is for them to walk humbly in relationship with Him!

As you and I set goals for 2023, instead of asking ourselves what we want to do or how we want to serve God, let’s ask God!

Even if we are dealing with consequences for past sins, He can help us accept and learn from those consequences. He knows how best to move forward. Five goals God has for us just from this passage are to:

1. Walk humbly with Him
2. Listen to Him
3. Heed His correction
4. Act justly
5. Love mercy

Instead of saying “Happy New Year!” maybe a better greeting, from one Christian to another, is “Happy Humbly Hustling for Him this Year!” 😉

Thursday Devotional - God's Work in 2022! (12/29/22)

 Throughout this past year we tried to record specific answers to prayer and ways we saw God work. Then, on Thanksgiving, we read through all the ones we had recorded (and I know there are numerous others we forgot to record!). I thought I would share just a few here:

1. Healing of my broken wrist without needing surgery
2. Recovery from COVID and that we didn’t share it with my parents
3. Sparing my baby nephew’s life and healing him
4. Finding my special mug (in one piece!) that fell off the car
5. Direction and support for leading in a new ministry
6. Preserving the kids’ library book coupons (thrown away on accident)

God cares about and is involved in life and death situations and in tiny .25 cent coupons!

As I was studying Obadiah last night, I was reminded again that everything comes from God. All credit belongs to Him! When we fail to remember that, then we become prideful and the outcome won’t be pretty. God’s prophesy against Edom for their centuries of prideful living was bleak.

Obadiah 1:1-3     The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

² “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?                                

It was a stark reminder of the real danger of pride. The opposite is humility, which recognizes our utter dependence on God and that everything we have and can do comes from Him. I pray you and I can grow in humility this coming year! All credit belongs to Him! He is always at work!!!

 

Thursday Devotional - Our Christmas Letter/Picture 2022 12/22/2022

The Reas - 2022 (Joe, Alice, James (10), Sarah (8), Edmund and Alexis (6))

God challenged us through our Bible Study Fellowship memory verse, II Chronicles 20:12b “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” We’ve had ups and downs, but God is faithful to us when we look to Him.

January rang in with my wrist broken after ice-skating! The kids mastered dishes, showers and zippers quickly. 

February started w/COVID for all! Thankfully it didn’t flare up James’ asthma (“COVID is better than a cold!”)

March ended with another set of twins (born to my sister) and a long/scary NICU stay for the boy.

April brought exciting horse-back riding for Sarah, even doing jumps! (“How many days until the next lesson?”)

May started new sports, w/soccer for some and T-ball for Edmund (“I’m not going!” but waits ready in the car).

June included a refreshing marriage retreat and a new experience on a swim/dive team for James and Sarah. 

July was long-awaited by Alexis, as she finally got to join a gymnastics pre-team! (“I can walk in myself, Mom!”)

August included fun camps/trips before a drastic change starting kindergarten for Edmund and Alexis!

September was filled with Edmund’s machine pitch and James’s school soccer seasons.  

October added Detroit Youth Opera Chorus rehearsals, with Sarah joining James, cousin Mark and aunt Jane. 

November unexpectedly brought several rental property issues and repairs for Joe.

December nervously started with a level 4 gymnastics competition for James and several music concerts.

James and Sarah practice piano daily before school while Edmund and Alexis do a math paper. They all continue to run regularly with me and even the twins competed in a 2-mile middle school cross country race! It’s never dull around here! As organized as I try to be, I have forgotten to take or pick up a kid at the right time!  

Merry Christmas!

I pray when you and I don’t know what to do (and even when we think we know what to do) we will look to God for wisdom and direction (as II Chronicles 20:12 says). Nothing in our lives is a surprise to Him and He already has a plan!

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Joy to the World! 12/15/22

We just sang this last night before bed! Most nights we try to sing a Christmas Carol together when we do our evening Bible reading and prayer. A different kid gets to pick the carol each day. This year, the top pick has been Joy to the World! It is one of my favorite Christmas hymns because it truly expresses excited celebration of Jesus, our King and Savior!

Isaac Watts wrote the words to this hymn in 1719, at the age of 45. It was part of a huge work he wrote “The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and Applied to the Christian State and Worship.” Isaac Watts saw how much David praised the Lord through song (in the Psalms) and knew we as New Testament believers have much more for which to praise God, having received Jesus!!!

Psalm 28:6-7

⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.

How will you and I truly worship God with joy (for who He is and what He’s done through Jesus)? Let our joy be contagious this time of year!!!

Alice