Thursday Devotional - Faithful God through a Bold Prophet (3/2/23)

Word of the King of Aram’s letter must have travelled fast! Somehow Elisha knew about it before Naaman left the king of Israel!  

II Kings 5:7-10    ⁷ As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

⁸ When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

This was a bold move by Elisha, as the King of Israel was probably Jehoram, the son of wicked king Ahab. Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, had tried several times to kill Elijah (Elisha’s predecessor).

Elisha had compassion for this foreigner, though, and cared about Naaman’s spiritual and physical wellbeing. He also, and maybe most importantly, cared about God’s name and reputation. When Elisha said “Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel,” I don’t think he was pridefully talking about himself. I think he was saying the God of Israel is the true and living God that is still actively working through His servants.

Like Elisha, when have you and I boldly stood for God’s reputation? Where might He want to use you and me to boldly stand today for who He is and what He has and can do?

Alice

Thursday Devotional (a day late) Faithful God through an Enemy King (2/24/23)

We had no internet yesterday because of the ice storm (and no school, so I took the day off). Sorry this is a day late! I guess I could have posted it Wednesday night when I wrote! 

A caring captive spoke up for the benefit of her captor, as we saw last week! Naaman’s servant confidently told him where he could find healing for his leprosy. Not only did Naaman believe her, but so did Israel’s enemy king, the king of Aram!

II Kings 5:4-6     Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. ⁵ “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. ⁶ The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

Even though the king of Aram misunderstood WHO could heal Naaman, God faithfully used him to compassionately act on behalf of his commander. He could have viewed this as a dangerous ploy by the servant girl or a risky encounter with the king of Israel. Yet, he boldly wrote a letter and sent his commander!

Where might God want to use you and me to speak up or write a letter for the benefit of someone else? Maybe we’re afraid it’s too risky or won’t help. Our Faithful God can use our small actions (at His direction) to accomplish His BIG plan.

Alice

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!!!