"But Naaman went away angry and said, 'I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy'" (2 Kings 5:11-12).
One of the daily devotional emails I receive from crosswalk.com, Today God is First by Os Hillman was on this verse today. It was a great reminder to me that God doesn’t always give us the loud or neon sign answers we’d love to see - or even answers that seem directly related. He uses circumstances and natural things around us to guide and direct us. Just because His will isn’t “screaming” at us, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t obey.
Quoting from the Os :
Like many of us, Naaman expected God to perform his miracle through Elisha in a dramatic and "religious" way. Sometimes we fail to recognize that God can work through a simple act of obedience that seems unrelated to the problem. God told Joshua to walk around Jericho seven times to win the battle. He told a man to put mud on his eyes to be healed. He told Peter to catch a fish to get a coin to pay his taxes.
There are other times God calls us to use the natural to receive a breakthrough. Sometimes we simply need to change our diet or go see a doctor to see a breakthrough in our health. Sometimes we need to change the way we are doing our work to get a breakthrough in our careers.
Samuel the prophet told King Saul that obedience is better than sacrifice. Learning to listen to the Lord and following His instruction is the key to success in God. Sometimes God chooses the dramatic and sometimes He chooses the ordinary. In either case, both are miracles because God is the God over all creation.
Ask Him what steps you are to take for your breakthrough.
My prayer for today: Father God, please, do show me what steps I need to take for my breakthrough. I am so sorry for all the times I am sure I’ve ignored your direction and have not obeyed. I know me even better than I know myself, so you know that even tho I know in my head that you guide and direct me in all sorts of ways through your Holy Spirit, I don’t always listen as attentively or obey like I should. Please help me to recognize you in the ordinary and not just wait for the extraordinary. Thank you for your love, patience and mercy as well as your forgiveness when I stumble and don’t obey as You’d like me to. I ask all this in the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Thank you most of all for Your sacrifice of Him for my salvation.
