Friday, 20 September 2024
Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 5:1–19
“So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
- 2 Kings 5:14
Here is a beautiful story of a captive girl’s faith in the Lord that became a blessing to the household she was put in. She was an Israelite captured and then brought to serve the wife of Naaman, who though the commander of the army of Syria and a man of valor, was a leper! Leprosy during those days was highly contagious and greatly feared by the society. It was a common practice to send lepers to quarantine camps. The faith of this captive girl in his home paved the way for her master’s healing.
It is human tendency to reject God when one faces trials and difficult times in life. Here we see a young girl who was held captive from Israel proclaiming her faith in the God of Israel. She might have faced adverse circumstances and persecutions during her captivity. But none of these obstacles could harm her faith in God. Even when the king of Israel who enjoyed great blessing behaved like a person without faith, the young girl in captivity was immersed deep in her faith in the Almighty God.
Here we should observe that the servant girl was faithful in the area where God placed her and that brought healing to the military commander, Naaman, by glorifying the God of Israel. After his healing, we see Naaman proclaiming his belief in the true God (V.15).There is an encouraging lesson for us to learn from the life of this servant girl: No matter how small or low are the positions we are holding or the adverse circumstances we are in, God can use us mightily for His Kingdom work, provided we are faithful to the call and we walk in obedience.
God dealt with Naaman in the area of his pride. He had to humble himself to obey the godly instruction which came to him through Elisha, the Prophet. All his military medals and the commander’s uniform had to be stripped off from him to go in the water to dip himself seven times so that he could be healed of his leprosy. If he had continued in his pride and not listened to the simple instructions given by the prophet, he would have forfeited his healing. But when he let go of his pride and obeyed, he experienced total healing! Most often, God tests our faith in Him before He performs a miracle in our life.
There can be circumstances in our life that often would make us want to complain and feel discouraged and down; but the lesson for us today is the faith of the little girl that held on to her God even in her negative circumstances. She became an instrument in God’s hands that led to her master’s healing. There are other times when we need to let go of our pride and obey the Lord in probably a simple instruction He gives us, if we truly need to receive a blessing from God. In both the times, it calls us to trust God! The end result is a blessing!
Promise:
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You;
For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. (Psalm 9:10)
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